nRF9160 DKDevelopment kit

Cellular IoT development kit for LTE-M, NB-IoT, GNSS 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 GNSS. 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 the nRF9160 certifications page for more details.

A dedicated patch antenna for GNSS, 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 GNSS 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 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. 

PDF IconDownload nRF9160 DK product brief (PDF)

PDF IconDownload nRF9160 DK product brief Simplified Chinese (PDF)

Key features
  • Global LTE-M/NB-IoT antenna
  • GNSS antenna
  • Arduino Uno form factor
  • Supports Bluetooth LE
  • 4 LEDs user-programmable
  • 2 buttons user-programmable
  • 2 switches user-programmable
  • SEGGER J-Link OB Debugger with debug out support
  • UART interface through VCOM port
  • USB connection for debug/programming and power
  • Bundled with an eSIM card from iBasis preloaded with 10 MB 

Cellular Connectivity

To connect the nRF9160 DK to nRF Cloud, you need an IoT-enabled SIM card that can connect to either LTE-M or NB-IoT networks in your region. The iBasis card included in the kit has coverage in most regions (download the coverage map for more information).

If the iBasis SIM does not have coverage in your region, please see our cellular connectivity partner page for alternatives, and contact your local Regional Sales Manager or your local network operator to purchase a local IoT-enabled SIM.

Getting started

with nRF9160DK

Cellular IoT Fundamentals course

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Follow Exercise 1 in the Cellular IoT Fundamentals course for the best getting started experience.

If you want to use the nRF9160 SiP as an LTE modem only to evaluate using  AT commands, you can flash the Serial LTE Modem application from Cellular Monitor as shown in Exercise 1 by selecting the Serial LTE Modem option (see below figure).

graphical user interface, application

We recommend following the other exercises to get to learn how to develop on nRF9160.