Can I program a chip without the board?

[SMGKNI]

Hello, I'm currently planning a product that involves Bluetooth technology and came across the NRF5340 chip. I see that I can get the development kit which is a board with the chip and all GPIOs like an Arduino board which will be great for testing but my question is, how could I get the chip alone and program it without all the extras features the board itself comes with? Like a customized PCB where I could just solder the chip with the program already in it.

For instance, it's advertise you can use the chip in wearables but you wouldn't put the whole board on a smart watch.

It will be my first product so I don't know much about what happens after you successfully programmed and tested the chip with the development kit and you are ready to make a prototype. If this can't be done I will appreciate any help or orientation I can get on the subject since my plan is to successfully launch a working product and produce a few hundreds of it to start with.

Thanks.

[Jared]

Hi,

The nRF5340 supports the SWD protocol, which means that you can use a J-link stand alone debugger from SEGGER to program the IC. However, the IC itself needs some external components to function properly, such as decoupling capacitors, crystals and DCDC components. What is necessary depends on how you're going to use the IC, our reference design shows the possible configurations, and the minimum that is required on a custom board for the nRF to function properly. Designing a custom board is not an easy task, and requires a bit of experience regarding the RF part. 

regards

Jared