Espressif Systems Announces an IEEE 802.15.4 + Bluetooth 5 (LE) RISC-V SoC

ESP32-H2 comes with integrated IEEE 802.15.4 radio and Bluetooth 5 (LE) connectivity from a 32-bit RISC-V core. This ensures low power consumption and security for connected devices.

Shanghai, China -- Aug 26, 2021 -- Espressif Systems (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (SSE: 688018.SH), announces today the upcoming release of ESP32-H2 with IEEE 802.15.4 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) connectivity, operable in the 2.4 GHz band. ESP32-H2 enhances Espressif’s SoC portfolio far beyond Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity by adding IEEE 802.15.4 connectivity as well. This SoC comes with an integrated DC-DC converter that enables ultra-low-power, energy-efficient operation.

ESP32-H2 combines two important connectivity technologies. IEEE 802.15.4 radio connectivity has been important to the supported mesh architecture with low power consumption. The availability of Thread and Zigbee protocols address a variety of application use-cases. Bluetooth LE supports point-to-point, broadcast and mesh communication topologies, while it also enables a direct communication between the smartphone and the device.

The combined availability of IEEE 802.15.4 and Bluetooth LE connectivity enables building devices for the upcoming Matter protocol that intends to bring interoperability for Smart-Home devices. With ESP32-H2 and other SoCs in its portfolio, Espressif can offer the full spectrum of Matter protocol solutions for endpoints with Wi-Fi or Thread connectivity, as well as for border router implementations using a combination of SoCs.

ESP32-H2 has a single-core, 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller that can be clocked up to 96 MHz. It has a 256 KB SRAM and works with external flash. It has 26 programmable GPIOs with support for ADC, SPI, UART, I2C, I2S, RMT, GDMA and PWM. ESP32-H2 continues to facilitate building secure connected devices through hardware security features such as ECC-based secure boot, AES-128/256-XTS-based flash encryption, digital signature and an HMAC peripheral for identity protection, as well as cryptographic accelerators for improved performance.

Block Diagram of ESP32-­H2

ESP32-H2 will support Thread version 1.x and Zigbee 3.x. Espressif, as an active member of CSA, will continue to develop and support the Matter protocol on ESP32-H2 for as long as the standard progresses. ESP32-H2 will be supported through Espressif’s mature IoT Development Framework (ESP-IDF), so that our customers can benefit from their familiarity with our field-proven platform that already powers millions of connected devices.

If you are interested in ESP32-H2 or want to get more detailed information, please contact our customer support team. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

Note: Due to a change in our product planning, ESP32-H2 will eventually leverage the power of IEEE 802.15.4 in conjunction with Bluetooth 5 (LE) radio in the place of previously announced Bluetooth 5.2 (LE) radio.