NXP Semiconductors FRDM-KW36 User Manual

© 2018 NXP B.V.

FRDM-KW36 Minimum BoM Development
Board User’s Guide

1. Introduction

This guide describes the hardware of KW36 Minimum Bill
of Material development board (reference X-UBluetooth
LEKWZ0-31417). The board is configurable, low-power,
and cost-effective. It is an evaluation and development
board for application prototyping and demonstration of the
KW36A/35A and KW36Z/35Z family of devices.

The KW36 is an ultra-low-power, highly integrated single­chip device that enables Bluetooth® Low Energy
(Bluetooth LE) or Generic FSK (at 250, 500 and 1000
kbps) for portable, extremely low-power embedded
systems.

The KW36 integrates a radio transceiver operating in

2.36 GHz to 2.48 GHz range supporting a range of GFSK,
an Arm® Cortex®-M0+ CPU, up to 512 KB Flash and up
to 64 KB SRAM. Bluetooth LE Link Layer hardware and
peripherals optimized to meet the requirements of the target
applications.

KW36 device is also available on the FRDM-KW36
Freedom Development Board. For more information about
the FRDM-KW36 Freedom Development Board, see the

NXP Semiconductor

Document Number: MiniBoMKW36UG

User’s Guide

Rev. 0

,

09/20187

Contents

1. Introduction ....................................................................... 1

2 Overview and description .................................................. 2

2.1 Overview .................................................................2

2.2 Feature description ..................................................3

3 Functional description........................................................ 5

3.1 Block diagram .........................................................5

3.2 Generic application schematic .................................6

3.3 RF Circuit ................................................................9

3.4 Clocks ......................................................................9

3.5 Power management ................................................ 10

3.6 User Application LEDs .......................................... 15

4 I/O .................................................................................... 16

4.1 I/O pin accessibility ............................................... 16

5 Schematic......................................................................... 18

6 Layout .............................................................................. 19

7 PCB ................................................................................. 20

8 Mounted PCB .................................................................. 20

9 Component positioning .................................................... 21

10 Bill of material ................................................................. 23

Buck mode ............................................................. 23

Bypass mode .......................................................... 25

11 References ....................................................................... 27

12 Revision history ............................................................... 27

Overview and description

FRDM-KW36 Minimum BoM Development Board User’s Guide, User’s Guide, Rev. 0, 09/20187

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FRDM-KW36 Freedom Development Board User's Guide (document FRDMKW36ZUG). Find the
schematic and design files at this link (NXP web page).

2 Overview and description

The KW36 minimum BoM development board is an evaluation environment supporting NXP
KW35Z/36Z/35A/36A (KW36) Wireless Microcontrollers (MCU). The KW36 integrates a radio
transceiver operating in the 2.4 GHz band (supporting a range of GFSK and Bluetooth LE) and an Arm
Cortex-M0+ MCU into a single package. NXP supports the KW36 with tools and software that include
hardware evaluation and development boards, software development IDE, applications, drivers, and a
custom PHY with a Bluetooth LE Link Layer. The KW36 minimum BoM development board (31417)
consists of the KW36Z device with a 32 MHz reference oscillator crystal, RF circuitry (including antenna),
supplied with a coin cell CR2032 or an external power supply. The board is a standalone PCB and supports
application development with NXP’s Bluetooth Low Energy and Generic FSK libraries.

2.1 Overview

Figure 1 is a high-level block diagram of the KW36 Minimum BoM board (X-UBluetooth LEKWZ0-

31417) features:

Figure 1. KW36 Minimum BoM board block diagram

Overview and description

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2.2 Feature description

The KW36 Minimum BoM development board is based on TPMS development platform. It is the most
diverse reference design containing the KW36Z device and all necessary I/O connections to use as a stand­alone board. Figure 2 shows the KW36 Minimum BoM development board.

Figure 2. KW36 Minimum BoM development board

The KW36 Minimum BoM development board includes following features:

• NXP’s ultra-low-power KW36Z Wireless MCU supporting Bluetooth LE and Generic FSK

• Reference design area with small-footprint, low-cost RF node:

o Single-ended input/output port
o Very low count of external components (minimum BoM)

• Ceramic antenna

• Selectable power sources (coin cell or external output power)

• DC-DC converter with Buck, and Bypass operation modes

• 32 MHz reference oscillator for RF operation

• 32.768 kHz reference oscillator mainly use for RTC operation and RF low-power operation

• 2.4 GHz frequency operation (ISM and MBAN)

• Coin cell connector to be able to work using a CR2032 coin cell

• Cortex 10-pin (0.05) SWD debug port for target MCU

• 1x6 Connector 6-pin UART port

• Three orange LED indicator for power and communication

• 20 available GPIOs

Overview and description

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Figure 3 shows the main board features and Input/Output headers for the KW36 Minimum BoM board:

Figure 3. KW36 Minimum BoM board component placement

Functional description

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3 Functional description

The four-layer board provides the KW36 with its required RF circuitry, 32 MHz reference oscillator
crystal, and power supply with a DC-DC converter including Bypass and Buck (default) modes. The
layout for this base-level functionality can be used as a reference layout for your target board.

3.1 Block diagram

Figure 4. Block diagram (Buck mode)

Figure 5. Block diagram (Bypass mode)

Functional description

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3.2 Generic application schematic

3.2.1 Buck mode (auto-start)

Figure 6. Buck mode (auto start)

Functional description

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3.2.2 Buck mode (manual-start)

Figure 7. Buck mode (manual start)

Functional description

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3.2.3 Bypass mode

Figure 8. Bypass mode

Functional description

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3.3 RF Circuit

The KW36 Minimum BoM board RF circuit provides an RF interface for users to begin application
development. A minimum matching network to the MCU antenna pin is provided through C17 and L8.
Those two components match to the ceramic antenna through a 50 ohms controlled line. An additional
and optional matching component (R112 footprint), is provided to better filter harmonics.

Figure 9. KW36 Minimum BoM board RF circuit

3.4 Clocks

The KW36 Minimum BoM board provides two clocks. One 32 MHz for clocking MCU and Radio, and
a 32.768 kHz to provide an accurate low-power time base.

Figure 10. KW36 minimum BoM board 32 MHz reference oscillator circuit