Specifications and Requirements

Technical Details

• Nordic nRF9160*
  • Microcontroller
    • ARM Cortex M33
    • 1MB Flash
    • 256kB RAM
    • ARM® TrustZone®
    • ARM® Cryptocell 310
    • Up to 4x SPI, I2C and UART with Easy DMA
    • I2S w/ EasyDMA
    • 4x PWM with EasyDMA
    • 12bit SADC with EasyDMA
    • 2x RTC
    • PPI (Programmable peripheral interconnect) interface
  • Radio
    • Transceiver and baseband
    • 3GPP LTE release 13 Category M1 and NB1 compliant
    • 3GPP release 14 NB2 compliant
    • GPS receiver (GPS L1 C/A supported) - Active antenna only.
    • RF Transceiver for global coverage supporting bands:
      • Cat-M1: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B8, B12, B13, B14, B17, B18, B19, B20, B25, B26, B28, B66
      • Cat-NB1/NB2: B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, B8, B12, B13, B17, B18, B20, B25, B26, B28, B66
    • Supports 4FF Nano SIM
• Micro USB connection for USB-to-Serial and DFU
• Pre-programmed MCUBoot bootloader
• External NOR Flash by Winbond
  • 4MB of space (Upgraded for all boards as of August 2, 2020!)
  • Max bus speed of 133MHz
  • Standard SPI
• Power supply
  • 3.3V Buck with < 1uA of quiesent current. 750 mA ouput max
  • Operating range 3.0 to 6.5V
  • External LiPoly battery connection (JST SPH type)
  • LiPoly set to 300mA with indication
• Programmer
  • Capable of interfacing with Jlink and CMSIS-DAP based programmers
  • Use with a Tag Connect TC2030-CTX-NL over Serial Wire Debug (SWD)
• Low Power RTC on board for time keeping and as a low power wakeup source.
• User I/O
  • Standard feather form factor GPIOs (0.1" pitch)
  • 2x buttons (1 Reset, 1 General Purpose)
  • 1x Blue LED connected to D7
• Antenna connections:
  • 1x U.FL for LTE with matching network
  • 1x U.FL for active GPS antennas
• Feather form factor
  • 50.8mm x 22.86mm (2" x 0.9")

* nRF9160 tech specs provided from the nRF9160 Product Specification

Electrical

Here are the elctrical specifications for the nRF9160 Feather. Most of the specifications here are based on the nRF9160 Product Specification. You can get the latest version of the nRF9160 Product Specification here. All previous versions can be found here.

Board Supply

• Output voltage: 3.3V ± 0.3V
• Max output current: 750
• Active sleep current < 10µA @ 3.6V¹

¹ Current above 4.0V increases significantly due to the switching regulator design. We recommend using single cell Lithium batteries or providing external power <= 4.0V

Pin Ratings (MD/A0-A5/D0-D8/TX/RX/CIPO/COPI/SCK/RST)

• Max input voltage: 3.6V

Enable Pin

• Max input voltage: 6.5V¹

¹Enable pin is active high.

External Power Supply

The nRF9160 Feather can be powered via battery or USB. See below for the specifics for each power source

USB Requirements

• Operating range: 5V ± 0.2V
• Current requirements: >500mA

Battery Requirements

• Battery type: LiPoly
• Operating range: 2.8-5.5V
• Current/power rating: Able to support at least 2W of power
• Battery capacity: > 300mAH²
• Charging current: 294mA ± 10%

²Batteries below this capacity are not recommended nor supported.

Note: with charging circuit disabled (short JMP2) any input source up to 6.5V is supported.

GPS Antenna

The U.FL port on the nRf9160 Feather is to be used with an active GPS antenna only.

• Antenna supply voltage: 3.3V ± 0.3V
• Antenna current rating: 15mA

The port works with most U.FL based active antenna parts. The nRF9160 Feather has been tested and verified with the following parts:

Cellular Antenna

The nRF9160 Feather has been tested with these approved antennas. They're chosen specifically to match the FCC requirements as indicated here.

Only tested antennas are supported. If you choose to use a different one, proceed at your own risk!