nRF9160 DK

Cellular IoT development kit for LTE-M, NB-IoT, GPS and Bluetooth LE

The nRF9160 DK is an affordable, pre-certifed single-board development kit for evaluation and development on the nRF9160 SiP for LTE-M, NB-IoT and GPS. It also includes an nRF52840 board controller that for example can be used to build a Bluetooth Low Energy gateway.

It has a dedicated LTE-M and NB-IoT antenna that supports a wide range of bands, to operate globally. LTE bands B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B8, B12, B13, B14, B17, B18, B19, B20, B25, B26, B28 and B66 have been certified. See this page for more details.

A dedicated patch antenna for GPS, and a 2.4 GHz antenna to be used with Bluetooth LE are included on the board. SWF RF connectors are available for the LTE-M/NB-IoT and 2.4 GHz antennas. A connector is also available to attach an external GPS antenna.

All GPIOs and interfaces (SPI/TWI/UART), are available via connectors. The kit is Arduino Uno Rev3 compatible, meaning it can be easily interfaced with external device shields.

User-programmable LEDs (4), buttons (2) and switches (2) are available to easily give input and get output. The nRF9160 DK has both a 4FF SIM card slot and an MFF2 SIM footprint, to support both plug-in and soldered (e)SIMs. It is bundled with a eSIM card from iBasis preloaded with 10 MB.

Programming and debugging is enabled through the Segger J-Link OB, which also supports external targets. The nRF9160 DK is supported by a full suite of development software and tools. All free to download and use commercially.

nRF Connect SDK includes everything needed to get started, application layer protocols, examples, peripheral drivers and more. The kit can easily be connected to our cloud solution, nRF Connect for Cloud. The nRF Link Monitor tool located in nRF Connect for Desktop provides an AT command interface that enables you to test your link, and extract information about the network.

The nRF9160 SiP and nRF9160 development kit are now in production and are suitable for full end-to-end sensor to cloud development. We’re still developing features and optimizing performance.

See the nRF9160 certifications page for details on certification, LTE bands and security supported.

Download nRF9160 DK product brief (PDF)

Regulatory Certification

Check out the regulatory nRF9160 Certifications to see in which regions the nRF9160 SiP has been certified for radiated operation. Its modem firmware is limited to operation in the bands that were certified at the time of production.

More information on network operator coverage can be found under the Get started tab.

Learn more from our experts

We have several webinars covering topics within cellular IoT available on-demand. Nordic Tech Webinars

Grab a coffee and enjoy!

Develop

with the nRF9160 SiP

nRF9160 SiP

Low power SiP with integrated LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GPS

Fully integrated SiP for cellular IoT
Multimode LTE-M/NB-IoT modem with GPS
700-2200 MHz LTE band support
Certified for global operation
Dedicated application processor and memory
64 MHz Arm Cortex-M33
1 MB flash + 256 KB RAM
Arm TrustZone + Arm CryptoCell

Cellular IoT prototyping platform

With the nRF9160 SiP

Nordic Thingy:91

The Nordic Thingy:91 is an easy-to-use cellular IoT prototyping platform, designed to help building prototypes and demos, without the need to build hardware or even write firmware.

Relevant Development Tools

Test and verify

nRF Connect SDK

nRF Connect SDK is a common software development kit for cellular IoT and short-range wireless, on the nRF9160 SiP, the nRF5340 SoC and all nRF52 Series SoCs.

nRF Connect for Desktop

nRF Connect for Desktop is a cross-platform framework for development applications. It contains applications for testing Bluetooth Low Energy and LTE links, power optimization, programming and more.