Kit enhancements help simplify IoT design

NXP Semiconductors has added a set of timing and connectivity components from Abracon LLC to its NXP Rapid IoT Prototyping Kit. The Abracon parts should make it easier and faster for engineers to create products for the internet of things (IoT).

The NXP kit includes an ARM-based Kinetis K64 microcontroller (MCU), NXP’s KW41Z lower-power RF IC (for BLE, Thread, and Zigbee), various sensors, and other components. Abracon’s contributions to the NXP kit include ICs for timing and RF and near-field communications (NFC) antennas.

The products were selected to match the needs of NXP’s MCU and RF/SoC chipsets. IoT devices have grown in complexity with more advanced computation, sensing, and enhanced connectivity/RF requirements that include sophisticated hardware, firmware, and software development, said Abracon.

Crystal-based timing devices must be carefully matched with MCUs, Abracon’s director of marketing, Juan Conchas, told Electronic Products. The same is not necessarily true of NFC ICs, but it certainly is the case for RF components, he added.