Nordic Semiconductor Design Services
Nordic Semiconductor builds ultra-low-power wireless SoCs — the nRF52 and nRF53 series for Bluetooth LE, Thread, Zigbee and Matter, and the nRF91 series for cellular IoT (LTE-M/NB-IoT) with GNSS.
Nordic is the default choice for battery-powered connected products. Its SoCs pair an Arm Cortex-M core with a best-in-class radio and a mature SDK (nRF Connect SDK, built on Zephyr RTOS), making them a strong fit where current consumption and RF performance decide the product.
Nordic's dominance in Bluetooth LE is not accidental. The company ships radios with class-leading receive sensitivity and sub-microamp sleep currents, and backs them with the nRF Connect SDK — a single, actively maintained codebase built on the Zephyr RTOS that covers every current-generation part. Firmware written for an nRF52840 wearable migrates to an nRF5340 or an nRF54 with modest effort, which protects your software investment as the silicon roadmap advances. The ecosystem also stretches beyond the main SoCs: the nPM family of power-management ICs handles charging and fuel gauging, and the nRF7002 Wi-Fi 6 companion IC covers products that occasionally need Wi-Fi throughput alongside Bluetooth.
That said, Nordic parts reward disciplined engineering. Real battery life is decided by radio duty cycle, connection intervals, sensor scheduling and leakage in the surrounding circuit — not by the datasheet sleep figure. RF range and certification results are decided by antenna selection, matching-network tuning and board stack-up. Teams that treat an nRF as "just another microcontroller" routinely land two to five times short of the battery life the silicon can deliver; teams that build a power budget before the first prototype, and measure against it on every board spin, hit their numbers.
Key product families
nRF52 series
The workhorse BLE / 802.15.4 SoCs (nRF52832, nRF52840) for wearables, sensors and Matter devices. The nRF52832 covers cost-sensitive BLE sensors and beacons, while the nRF52840 adds a 64 MHz Cortex-M4F, 1 MB of flash, USB and an 802.15.4 radio for Thread and Zigbee. It remains the default recommendation for most new Bluetooth LE designs — proven, well documented, and available as pre-certified modules from several partners.
nRF53 series
Dual-core (application + network) for concurrent multiprotocol and more compute headroom. The nRF5340 pairs a 128 MHz application core with a dedicated network core, so Bluetooth LE and Thread can run simultaneously — the combination Matter needs — while TrustZone security and extra RAM give room for larger stacks and heavier application logic than a single-core nRF52 allows.
nRF54 series
The newest generation with higher efficiency and on-chip processing. The nRF54L parts cut radio current roughly in half versus the nRF52 generation and add stronger hardware security, while the nRF54H tier targets demanding multi-core designs. Where availability and module options fit the schedule, new long-life products should evaluate nRF54 first — the nRF Connect SDK makes the port from older generations straightforward.
nRF91 series
Cellular IoT (LTE-M / NB-IoT) SiP with integrated GNSS for trackers and remote telemetry. The nRF9160 and newer nRF9151 combine the modem, GNSS receiver and an application-grade Cortex-M33 in one package, so a complete asset tracker or remote sensor needs no separate modem module. Typical use cases: GPS trackers, smart metering, agricultural and infrastructure telemetry in areas with LTE-M or NB-IoT coverage.
nPM PMICs & nRF7002
Companion silicon that rounds out a Nordic design: nPM1300-class power-management ICs provide battery charging, fuel gauging and system power rails sized for small wireless products, and the nRF7002 adds Wi-Fi 6 as a companion radio when a Bluetooth-first product needs occasional high-throughput or Wi-Fi-based locationing.
How Nordic compares
Nordic vs STMicroelectronics (STM32)
Choose Nordic when the radio and the battery are the product: its BLE radio performance, sleep currents and wireless SDK are stronger than the STM32WB's, and the cellular nRF91 has no STM32 equivalent. Choose STM32 when the design is control-centric — motor drives, precision analog, displays, safety-critical logic — and wireless is secondary or handled by a separate module; you gain a far broader peripheral catalogue and package range.
Nordic vs Espressif (ESP32)
Nordic wins on power: coin-cell and multi-year battery products are Nordic territory, and Wi-Fi's power appetite makes an ESP32 a poor fit there. ESP32 wins on cost when the product is mains- or USB-powered and needs Wi-Fi throughput on a tight bill of materials. Matter products can go either way — Thread-first designs favour Nordic, Wi-Fi-first designs favour Espressif — and some systems use both, with a Nordic sensor talking to an ESP32-based bridge.
Nordic vs NVIDIA Jetson
These two rarely compete — they sit at opposite ends of the compute spectrum. Nordic parts run kilobytes-to-megabytes of firmware on milliwatts; Jetson runs full neural networks on watts to tens of watts. They frequently cooperate instead: a Nordic SoC handles the battery-powered sensing and BLE side of a system whose camera perception or fleet analytics run on a Jetson gateway.
When to choose it
- Battery devices where months-to-years of life on a coin cell or small LiPo is required
- Bluetooth LE, Thread, Zigbee or Matter connectivity
- Cellular IoT trackers and remote sensors (nRF91) without a separate modem
- Medical and fitness wearables where radio reliability and a well-trodden certification path reduce regulatory risk
- Product lines expected to ride a long silicon roadmap — the nRF Connect SDK carries firmware across nRF52, nRF53 and nRF54
Typical applications
Design considerations we handle
RF and antenna design
We select and tune the antenna (chip, PCB trace or custom), design the matching network, and lay out the RF section with controlled-impedance feeds and a clean ground strategy. This is the difference between a product that passes over-the-air testing with margin and one that ships with half of its theoretical range.
Bluetooth qualification and regulatory approvals
A BLE product needs Bluetooth SIG qualification (a QDID listing) as well as radio certification — FCC in the US, CE/RED in Europe, and equivalents elsewhere. We design for pre-scan success, prepare direct-test-mode firmware for the lab, and support the whole campaign. Building on Nordic's qualified stack keeps the QDID path predictable.
Power budget engineering
We build a current budget per operating state — advertising, connected, sensing, sleeping — before the first board exists, then verify it with a power profiler on every hardware spin. Battery-life figures on our Nordic designs are measured, not estimated, and the assumptions behind them are documented so trade-offs stay visible.
Firmware on nRF Connect SDK and Zephyr
Our firmware team works natively in the nRF Connect SDK and Zephyr RTOS: custom BLE services and profiles, Thread and Matter stacks, secure device firmware update over the air, and power-aware drivers — with continuous-integration builds and on-target test rigs rather than ad-hoc bench testing.
Cellular and GNSS integration (nRF91)
For nRF91 designs we handle SIM and eSIM strategy, antenna coexistence between the LTE and GNSS paths, PSM and eDRX power tuning so the modem sleeps as designed, and planning for the network and carrier approvals your target markets require.
What we've shipped on Nordic
FDA-cleared cardiac wearable on the nRF52840
We engineered a wearable ECG monitor around the nRF52840 — biosensing analog front-end integration, a 14-day battery life won through an aggressive power budget, a custom BLE GATT streaming service, and the design documentation that supported the client's FDA 510(k) clearance. The device now underpins remote cardiac monitoring at scale.
Multi-network pet tracker on the nRF9160
A global pet tracker built around the nRF9160's LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GNSS, with BLE and LoRa as additional connectivity paths and an adaptive network-selection algorithm choosing between them. Fitting four radios into a collar-sized IP68 enclosure demanded careful antenna placement and coexistence work; the shipped product achieves a 45-day battery life.
Adjacent BLE platforms
Alongside Nordic silicon we have designed Bluetooth LE products with neighbouring parts such as Silicon Labs' BGM220P module. The antenna design, power profiling and qualification discipline transfer directly — and working across vendors lets us give an honest recommendation when Nordic is, or isn't, the right fit for your product.
How Rapid Circuitry designs with Nordic
Rapid Circuitry designs the antenna and matched RF front-end, lays out the board for RF performance and regulatory pass, and develops firmware on the nRF Connect SDK / Zephyr — taking Nordic-based products from schematic through Bluetooth and regulatory certification. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Hyderabad, we support clients across the US, UK, EU, Australia and India through qualification testing and production ramp, and low-power wireless designs like these are a large share of the programs behind our strong first-pass success rate, driven by formal design reviews and DFM.
Frequently asked questions
Which Nordic chip is best for a Matter device?
The nRF52840 and nRF5340 are common choices: they support Thread and BLE concurrently, which Matter needs for Thread transport plus BLE commissioning. The nRF5340's dual cores give more room for the Matter stack and application.
Can Nordic SoCs do cellular IoT?
Yes — the nRF9160/nRF9151 (nRF91 series) integrate an LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GNSS in a single SiP, so you can build a cellular tracker without a separate modem module.
How do you estimate battery life on a Nordic design before hardware exists?
We model a current budget per operating state — advertising, connection events, sensor sampling, sleep — using Nordic's Online Power Profiler plus measurements from comparable designs we have shipped, then validate the model on the first prototype with a hardware power profiler. Every estimate carries its assumptions (connection interval, TX power, sensor duty cycle) so trade-offs are explicit; measured results typically land within 10–15% of the model.
What does certification involve for a Nordic-based product?
Three tracks: Bluetooth SIG qualification (listing your product against a QDID), radio regulatory approval (FCC for the US, CE/RED for Europe, plus other markets you sell into), and any product-specific extras such as medical standards. Using Nordic's qualified stack keeps the SIG work predictable. As an indicative budget, lab testing across FCC and CE for a typical BLE product runs $10,000–$25,000 and 6–10 weeks; cellular nRF91 products add carrier and network approvals on top.
Building on Nordic?
Tell us your requirements and we'll confirm the right part and design the board and firmware around it.
Start your design