PSoC™6: Designing a Bluetooth Sports Accessory

Bluetooth-connected sports accessories are perhaps one of the most challenging applications for embedded design engineers. Several key constraints limit the ability to achieve a feature-rich product. The product's physical size and shape define the internal space for printed circuit boards (PCB) and battery size. Also, there is a delicate balancing act between PCB space and, consequently, the number of components used and battery size. The maximum battery size also dictates the likely battery chemistry and energy capacity. Today, consumers expect their products to have good battery life, so prolonging the time between charges is a crucial design specification.

Ideal product specifications include -

• Wireless connectivity to a smartphone over Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)
• Operate for a long duration between battery charging cycles
• Incorporate multiple sensors to collect sports performance data
• Ability to record collected data
• Minimal bill of materials (BOM) cost and component count
• Keep required PCB space to a minimum

Design solution based on PSoC™ 6 - Purpose-built for the IoT

An Infineon PSoC™ 63 connectivity line processor, part of the PSoC™ family of devices, with its high-performance 150-MHz Arm Cortex-M4 core, comprehensive programmable, and reconfigurable analog peripherals, is an ideal fit for the sports accessory application. Also, equipped with a low-power BLE 5.0 radio capable of 2 Mbps throughput, the PSoC™ 63 represents a competent and integrated processor in a single 104-WLCSP package. As the application example illustrates, PSoC™ provides all the processing, control, signal conditioning, and signal conversion resources the application requires. This approach delivers a low component count, meeting an essential design requirement. PSoC™ 63, with its industry-leading 22 µA/MHz power consumption characteristic, meets the crucial battery profile specifications.

Eight serial communication blocks (SCB) offer engineers the flexibility to configure serial ports to support I2C, SPI, or UART protocols, and a Quad-SPI memory interface provides connectivity to external nonvolatile external memory.

PSoC™ 6 - Purpose-built for the IoT

The burden of developing a battery-powered, BLE-enabled sports accessory is simplified by selecting a PSoC™ 63 processor for the product. With flexible, programmable, and reconfigurable features, the low-power PSoC™ 6 family delivers a highly integrated and low component count product solution.