nRF54L Series Express

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Overview and key features

The nRF54L Series distinguishes itself from its predecessor, the nRF52 Series, with several key features, specifically related to processing power, radio capabilities, security, memory technology, and peripherals.

All SoCs in the nRF54L Series share the same general architecture, featuring an ultra-low-power multiprotocol 2.4 GHz radio and full MCU functionality, an Arm Cortex-M33 CPU, security features, peripherals, GPIO pins, and various memory configurations. A RISC-V coprocessor is also available on some variants.

The nRF54L Series architecture

The nRF54L Series is among the first publicly available low-power wireless SoCs fabricated using 22nm process technology. This technology offers high transistor density, lower average power consumption, and improved process efficiency, enabling the creation of compact, efficient, and feature-rich chips for advanced applications.

To optimize energy consumption, the nRF54L Series architecture is divided into four power domains that are independently powered, depending on what features are active at any point in time. This architecture enables ultra-low-power operation by allowing domains to be powered independently, allowing large sections of the chip to be turned off when not actively needed.

We will take a closer look at the power domains in the next lesson, Lesson 2 – Power domains, event system, and GPIO.

Application processor

The application processor is a 128 MHz Arm® Cortex®-M33 processor, which includes Arm® TrustZone® technology for secure and non-secure zones.

Radio

The ultra-low-power multiprotocol 2.4 GHz radio transceiver supports multiple wireless protocols:

  • Bluetooth® Low Energy
  • 802.15.4-2020 (for standards like Thread®, Matter, and Zigbee®)
  • 2.4 GHz proprietary modes (supporting up to 4 Mbps data rates)

The transceiver offers a maximum output power of +8 dBm and a minimum output power of -46 dBm.

RX sensitivityData rates
Bluetooth LE-96 dBm in 1 Mbps, 0.1% bit error rate
-104 dBm in 125 kbps (long range), 0.1% bit error rate		2 Mbps, 1 Mbps, 500 kbps and 125 kbps
IEEE 802.15.4-102 dBm typical sensitivity250 kbps
2.4 GHz proprietary modes 4 Mbps, 2 Mbps, and 1 Mbps

Notable enhancements

You can adjust TX power with 1 dB resolution from -10 dBm to +8 dBm (output power all the way down to -46 dBm), providing finer control over transmit power. This feature is useful for achieving precise output power control when working with constant-gain front-end modules (FEMs).

Security

Beyond TrustZone for secure/non-secure memory protection, the nRF54L Series includes tamper detection, secure key management, and a crypto accelerator.

With these security features, the nRF54L is increasingly resilient against physical attacks.

We will cover the full list of security features in Lesson 4 – Security features.

Coprocessor

The coprocessor is a RISC-V CPU designed by Nordic Semiconductor. In the nRF54L Series SoC’s, the RISC-V is implemented as a Fast Lightweight Peripheral Processor (FLPR). There are three separate ways to use the coprocessor:

  • SoftPeripheral through a binary provided by Nordic Semiconductor.
  • Develop custom software-defined peripherals using a High-Performance Framework (HPF).
  • Operate as a standalone Zephyr core.

The RISC-V Coprocessor will be covered in-depth in Lesson 3 – Peripherals and system components.

Memory

The nRF54L Series provides up to 512 KB of RAM and 2036 KB of NVM (non-volaile memory) in the form of RRAM (resistive RAM). The sizes vary between the different SoCs.

The memory regions are protected with TrustZone security.

RRAM

Resistive Random-Access Memory (RRAM) is the non-volatile memory component in the nRF54L Series. Compared to flash, RRAM offers faster write speeds, lower power consumption, and higher endurance.

RRAM allows for direct writing and overwriting of data without requiring an erase operation, simplifying memory management and improving performance. It also consumes less power, especially during write operations.

Peripherals

The nRF54L Series offers a wide range of peripherals, which we will cover in-depth in Lesson 2.

Note

Not all peripherals listed here are available in all the nRF54L Series SoCs. We will take a closer look at the specific peripherals available in the individual SoCs in the next topic of this lesson, nRF54L Series SoCs.

Some highlights include:

  • High-speed serial interfaces
    • One high-speed SPIM up to 32 MHz, four up to 8 MHz
    • One high-speed UARTE up to 4 Mbps, four up to 1 Mbps
    • Four TWI (I2C compatible), supporting 100 kbps, 400 kbps, and 1000 kbps (with limitations)
  • Three 4-channel pulse width modulation (PWM) units with EasyDMA
  • A 14-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with up to eight channels, featuring programmable gain and configurable oversampling.
  • Inter-IC Sound (I2S) and Pulse Density Modulation (PDM) interfaces
  • Two Quadrature decoders (QDEC)
  • Comparators (COMP and LPCOMP), which can wake up from System OFF mode
  • Global real-time counter (GRTC)
    • Available in all power modes, including System OFF
    • A single-channel PWM, which can operate in System OFF mode
  • Time division multiplexed (TDM) sound interface
  • High-speed USB

AI accelerator

Axon NPU (Neural Processing Unit) is an AI accelerator core designed by Nordic Semiconductor to be implemented alongside the Arm and RISC-V cores of select Nordic SoCs, which we will cover in the next topic. The Axon NPU has two main use cases: 

  • Increase the speed and efficiency of feature extraction
  • Increase the speed and efficiency of on-device AI inference

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