| project specification

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

The nRF9160 is a compact, highly-integrated System-in-Package (SiP) that makes the latest low power LTE technology and advanced processing and security accessible, and easy to use, for a wide range of single device low power cellular IoT (cIoT) designs.

Technical Specifications

• LTE-M/NB-IoT modem
Frequency range	700-2200
Throughput (UL/DL)	LTE-M:
	NB-IoT:
Output power	Up to 23
RX sensitivity	LTE-M:
	NB-IoT:
	GPS:
Mode
• Application processor
CPU	64

Flash	1
RAM	256
Peripherals


Interfaces	4
	4

Overview

Incorporating an Arm Cortex-M33 application processor solely for applications, a full LTE modem, RF Front End (RFFE) and power management system. The nRF9160 is the most compact, complete and energy-efficient cellular IoT solution on the market.

The integrated modem supports both LTE-M and NB-IoT and can operate globally removing any need for regional variants. All power saving features including eDRX and PSM are supported as is with IPv4/IPv6 support up to transport and security (TCP/TLS) level. The modem firmware is upgradable via secure, encrypted Firmware Over The Air (FOTA) updates.

The Arm Cortex-M33 application processor is supported by 1 MB of flash and 256 KB RAM making advanced application development possible in a single device solution.

A GPS receiver is integrated into the radio offering various modes of operation to suit a wide selection of applications that employ location-tracking functionality

A broad selection of general interfaces and peripherals and are included on nRF9160 including 12-bit ADC, RTC, SPI, I²C, I²S, UARTE, PDM and PWM.

Security is best-in-class with Arm TrustZone technology for isolation and protection of normal and secure zones for firmware and elements of hardware including memory and peripherals. Arm TrustZone helps build solid and secure ioT applications that feature secure boot, trusted firmware updates and root of trust implementations without performance compromise.

Arm CryptoCell enhances security still further by offering cryptographic and security resources to help to protect your IoT applications from various attack threats. CryptoCell is designed for high performance cryptography solutions optimized for energy-constrained devices.

The nRF9160 supports both SIM and eSIM for connection and authentication with mobile network operators.

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

LTE bands B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B8, B12, B13, B14, B17, B18, B19, B20, B25, B26, B28 and B66 have been certified so far. See this for more details.