nrf52 price, modifications

[gaminn]

What will be the price of nrf52 chips compared to nrf51?

Will there be any cheaper version of nrf52 chips with limited capacbilities (e.g. less flash, ram)?

[Clem Taylor]

I'd imagine you are unlikely to see a smaller version of the nrf52.

The nrf51 was on a 180nm process, the nrf52 is on a 55nm process. So just from the process change they get a 10x bump in transistors (180^2)/(55^2).

They doubled the flash and sram (most of the area) and when from a 3.88 x 3.2mm WLCSP to a 3.2 x 3mm WLCSP for the nrf52.

The OPS doc doesn't have a spec for the WLCSP version, but it does say 56 or 62 balls, so that is ~0.35mm. So how do you make the chip smaller and still have a package that can be assembled at low end assembly houses? 0.35mm is already pushing the capabilities of the low-cost assembly houses the typical Nordic customer would be using. To make the chip any smaller the would have to drop some GPIOs. Could happen, but I doubt it.

The nrf52 fixed frequency design and size does not really lend itself to binning and the 55nm process is fairly mature, so I'd imagine the yields are excellent anyway. The only way I see Nordic selling a 'cheaper' version of the nrf52 would be to take a hit on margins and sell a de-featured version at lower cost. But I can't see that happening until the chip is in production and they have fully ramped the volumes.