Measuring 13.5mm x 13.5mm, the module contains an accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, pressure sensor and microphone – parts developed by STMicroelectronics. Its size is said to make the module suitable for use as a standalone node in such products as wearables, gaming accessories and smart home or IoT devices.
Alongside the sensors, the moduel features an STM32L476 MCU with a floating point unit, Bluetooth LE communications and a low noise low drop out regulator.
Effectively, says Samtec, the module is an FCC certified production version of ST’s SensorTile development kit and is compatible with the STM32 ecosystem through STM32Cube support.
“The cooperation between Samtec and ST is expanding the functionality of ST’s SensorTile from development to production,” said Steve Hillerich, Samtec’s product manager, modules. “Samtec’s modular approach to IoT application development is leveraging ST’s IoT development ecosystem to enable OEMs to focus on their core IoT application competencies. With the continued growth of wireless sensing and connectivity, Samtec’s nMode module shortens design cycles and time to market for IoT application developers.”
Using its Glass Core Technology, Samtec plans to release smaller versions of the nMode module, as well as further standard nMode modules, in 2017.