Nordic Semiconductor

Nordic Semiconductor (OSE: NOD, formerly Nordic VLSI) is a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Trondheim, Norway. The company specializes in ultra-low power performance wireless system on a chip (SoC) and connectivity devices for the 2.4 GHz ISM band, with power consumption and cost being the main focus areas. Typical end-user applications are consumer electronics, wireless mobile phone accessories ("Appcessories"), wireless gamepad, mouse, and keyboard, intelligent sports equipment, wireless medical, remote control, wireless voice-audio applications (e.g., voice over IP), security and toys.

Nordic Semiconductor ASA
TypePublic limited, OSE: NOD
IndustrySemiconductors
Founded1983 (1983)
Headquarters
Trondheim, Oslo
,
Norway
Key people
CEO: Svenn-Tore Larsen,[1] Chairman: Birger Steen[2]
ProductsWireless semiconductor components, integrated circuits
Revenue288.4 million USD (2019)[3]
Number of employees
872 (2020)[4]
Websitenordicsemi.com

Nordic Semiconductor has been ISO 9001 certified by Det Norske Veritas (DNV) since 1996, and the certificate was upgraded to ISO 9001-2000 in 2001. In 1996, Nordic Semiconductor was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange's SME list.

History
Nordic Semiconductor nRF24LE1 - Wireless System On-Chip Solution

Nordic Semiconductor was initially founded as Nordic VLSI (NVLSI) in Trondheim, Norway in 1983. The company was formed by four post-graduates from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Initially the company focused on the design of mixed-signal application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) within the Nordic region. In 1996, the firm went public on the Norwegian stock exchange, where it still trades as of 2018. In 1998, NVLSI released their first wireless standard products in the 433 MHz ISM band. In 2003 NVLSI was renamed Nordic Semiconductor, often known as Nordic Semi, to reflect the company's full focus on ultra low-power wireless devices. The same year saw the release of Nordic Semiconductor's first wireless devices at 2.4 GHz. Since 2003, Nordic Semiconductor has maintained a clear focus on wireless products for the 2.4 GHz band and has seen its devices used in a wide range of branded consumer electronic products. Nordic Semiconductor maintains an especially dominant position in the wireless sports and fitness and wireless desktop peripheral markets.

Nordic Semiconductor have products that support 3 main connectivity topologies: Bluetooth low energy, ANT, ANT+ and 2.4 GHz proprietary protocols.

2012 saw the release of third generation of ultra low power wireless products. This family of products is named the nRF51 series and they incorporate the ARM Cortex-M series microcontrollers at their core. In 2015 Nordic Semiconductor introduced their newest 2.4 GHz ISM band SoC series, the nRF52 which incorporate the ARM Cortex-M4 as their core.[5] In January 2018, Nordic Semiconductor introduced and started sampling to selected lead customers their first LTE SoC, the nRF91 series.[6]In November 2019, Nordic Semiconductor introduced and started sampling to selected lead customers their new flagship SoC containing dual-core ARM Cortex-M33 processors and a multi-protocol radio stack (NFC/BLE/BLE mesh/Zigbee/Thread/others), the nRF53 series.[7]

Products

Nordic Semiconductor designs and produces SoC and connectivity solutions primarily for the ISM bands at 2.4 GHz and 868/915 MHz bands. Current products include SoCs incorporating the ARM Cortex-M0, ARM Cortex-M4[8] and ARM Cortex-M33[9] microcontroller cores.

Some of their most popular products are the nRF24L01+ and the nRF24LE1, both using the lightweight and proprietary "Enhanced ShockBurst" protocol stack in 2.4 GHz ISM band. The nRF24L01+ is a simple transceiver with some logic to implement the protocol stack and is connected to a microcontroller via an SPI bus, while the nRF24LE1 can be seen as an nRF24L01 and a microcontroller in the same chip.

Clones

Some clones of Nordic Semiconductor's chips can be found on the market, such as the SI24R1[10][11] and the BK2421.[12] They often demonstrate inferior receiver sensitivity and a higher power consumption, although they may add additional features such as a higher maximal transmission power.

Locations

Nordic Semiconductor is headquartered in Trondheim, Norway. R&D offices are located in Trondheim, Oslo (Norway), Kraków (Poland), Turku, Oulu (Finland) and Portland (USA). Technical support or sales offices are located in Sunnyvale, Boston, Chicago, Portland, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Muntinlupa and Sydney.

References
  1. "Management". Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  2. "Board of Directors". Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  3. "Annual Report 2019" (PDF). Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  4. Q3 Report 2020
  5. http://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/nRF52-Series-SoC
  6. https://www.nordicsemi.com/News/News-releases/Product-Related-News/Nordic-nRF91-low-power-cellular-IoT-sneak-peek-cellular-made-easy-cellular-for-everything-else
  7. https://www.nordicsemi.com/Products/Low-power-short-range-wireless/nRF5340
  8. http://www.nordicsemi.com/eng/Products/nRF52-Series-SoC
  9. https://www.nordicsemi.com/News/News-releases/Product-Related-News/Nordic-nRF91-low-power-cellular-IoT-sneak-peek-cellular-made-easy-cellular-for-everything-else
  10. "Nordic nRF24L01+ - real vs fake: weekend die-shot: ZeptoBars". zeptobars.com. Retrieved 2017-08-19.
  11. "We are mostly using fake nRF24L01+'s, but worse fakes are emerging". MySensors Forum. 2015-03-25. Retrieved 2017-08-19.
  12. Beken BK2421 Datasheet
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