Nordic Expands nRF54L Series With Compact nRF54LC10A Multiprotocol SoC

Nordic Semiconductor has introduced the nRF54LC10A System-on-Chip (SoC), a new entry-level addition to its nRF54L Series. Designed for small, cost-sensitive connected products, the ultra-low-power device supports Bluetooth^® Low Energy (LE), Bluetooth Channel Sounding, Thread, Zigbee, and Matter. It combines a 128 MHz Arm Cortex^®-M33 core with an integrated RISC-V coprocessor, 1 MB of Non-Volatile Memory (NVM), and 192 KB of RAM within a compact 1.9 × 2.3 mm chip-scale package.

The nRF54LC10A specifically targets high-volume deployments across two primary segments. The first is Bluetooth LE devices, such as asset trackers, which benefit from the SoC's compact footprint and support for accurate distance measurement via Bluetooth Channel Sounding. The second segment encompasses smart home applications, where the device can function as a standalone sensor node for Thread and Zigbee networks, or as a Thread radio coprocessor (RCP) alongside a host MCU. Manufactured on an advanced 22 nm process node, the SoC delivers exceptional energy efficiency with sleep-mode currents ranging from just 0.5 µA to 1.6 µA. Furthermore, the device integrates robust security features, including Arm^® TrustZone^® isolation and protection against physical attacks, enabling developers to meet rigorous regulatory requirements and maintain field security through Nordic's nRF Cloud services.

Additional Context
This section provides technological and market background not explicitly detailed in the original release.

The nRF54L Series serves as the next-generation successor to Nordic's highly popular nRF52 Series, migrating to a low-leakage 22nm manufacturing process to significantly boost processing efficiency while minimizing current draw. A major technological advancement in the nRF54LC10A is its native support for Bluetooth Channel Sounding, a feature introduced in the Bluetooth 6.0 core specification. Channel Sounding enables highly secure, high-accuracy distance measurement between two Bluetooth devices, which is critical for preventing relay attacks in smart locks and digital keys, while vastly improving spatial precision in indoor asset tracking. Furthermore, as the smart home industry coalesces around the interoperable Matter standard, integrating Thread, Zigbee, and Bluetooth LE into a single, highly miniaturized integrated circuit allows OEMs to build low-cost edge nodes and sensors without inflating their bill of materials (BOM) or sacrificing hardware security.

Edited by Lekshman Ramdas, Induportals editor – adapted by AI.

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