nRF7120E Wi-Fi 6E wireless SoC with integrated NPU

Ultra-low power, tri-band Wi-Fi 6E wireless SoCs with Bluetooth LE, Matter and Thread, with integrated Axon NPU

The nRF7120E is a Wi-Fi 6E wireless SoC in Nordic's nRF71 Series. It combines tri-band Wi-Fi® 6E (2.4, 5, and 6 GHz), a multiprotocol radio for Bluetooth® LE and Thread, an NFC tag, and a 256 MHz Arm® Cortex®-M33 application processor on a single chip, with high-speed USB and up to 65 GPIOs. Its 4 MB NVM and 1 MB RAM leave room for the customer application, ML models and a DFU slot for firmware updates.

The nRF7120E adds Nordic's Axon neural processing unit (NPU), which accelerates machine-learning inference on the device. Developers can run sensor fusion, audio and anomaly detection models locally and send only results over Wi-Fi, saving power and bandwidth

The nRF7120E supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, Matter, Thread, Zigbee and 2.4 GHz proprietary protocols with data rates up to 4 Mbps for low-latency applications. It also supports Bluetooth Channel Sounding, Bluetooth Mesh and Aliro.

Performance highlights

  • Processing efficiency and performance: 1010 CoreMark®, 3.95 / MHz
  • Enhanced edge AI capabilities with the integrated Axon NPU
  • Sleep modes power consumption: from 1.44 μA to 4.68 μA (@ 3.6 V)
  • Wi-Fi current consumption in connected standby mode at DTIM10: 14 μA at 2.4 GHz and 8 μA at 5 and 6 GHz (@ 3.6 V)
  • Maximum Wi-Fi TX power: +21 dBm (2.4 GHz) and +22 dBm (5 and 6 GHz)
  • Wi-Fi radio sensitivity: -98.6 dBm (1 Mbps, 2.4 GHz)
  • Multiprotocol radio maximum TX power: +10 dBm
  • Multiprotocol radio sensitivity: -99 dBm (1M Bluetooth LE), -102 dBm (802.15.4)
  • Optimized for the lowest total average current consumption

Key benefits

  •  Increased speed and power efficiency of AI inference tasks running on the Axon NPU
  • One chip instead of two: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE, Thread, NFC, open Application CPU, and the NPU in a single SoC, reducing design complexity, size, and cost
  • Reliable and robust wireless connectivity
  • Extended battery life enabled by lower power consumption in Wi-Fi connected standby, in DTIM and Target Wake Time (TWT) modes
  • Robust security with built-in features supporting compliance with regulations
  • Broad range of MCU feature sets across the series
  • nRF Cloud support for device management, FOTA and more
  • Unified development experience with the nRF Connect SDK across nRF71 and nRF70 Series devices

The nRF71 Series

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  • 256 MHz Arm® Cortex®-M33
  • 256 MHz Risc-V coprocessor with support for SoftPeripherals
  • 256 MHz integrated Axon NPU
  • 4 MB on-chip NVM
  • Support for off-chip XIP non-volatile
    memory
  • 1 MB on-chip, user-accessible low-leakage RAM
  • Tri-band Wi-Fi radio, 2.4, 5, and 6 GHz support
  • Wi-Fi 6E support, fully compatible with IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax
  • Wi-Fi modes: Station (STA) and SoftAP
  • Support for Target Wake Time (TWT) and legacy PSM with low-power receive mode
  • Ultra-low-power multiprotocol 2.4 GHz radio
  • NFC tag
  • High-speed USB with integrated PHY
  • 2x high-speed MPSI (up to 64 MHz)
  • 2x High-speed SPI (up to 64 MHz) and 1x high-speed UART (up to 4 Mbps)
  • 6x SPI/TWI/UART (8 MHz)
  • ADC, TDM, PDM, PWM, and QDEC
  • Global RTC available in System OFF
  • Up to 65 GPIOs
  • TrustZone® isolation, tamper detection, and cryptographic engine with side-channel leakage protection designed for PSA Certified Level 3
  • Package option: WLCSP (4.9 × 4.6 mm) with 350 μm pitch

Get started

The nRF7120E is available as engineering samples through Nordic's early access program. Contact your local Nordic Semiconductor sales representative to apply for samples and the nRF7120 DK. Then install nRF Connect SDK and follow Developing with nRF71 Series. To measure current consumption, see Power profiling on nRF7120 DK.