BG22L and BG24L Bluetooth Lite SoCs are Purpose Built for IoT

As the IoT landscape grows more complex and connected, the demands placed on wireless devices are shifting. It’s no longer just about getting data from point A to point B — today’s devices need to be smarter, more power-efficient, and purpose-built for the tasks at hand. Whether it's enabling predictive maintenance on industrial equipment, tracking assets in dense environments, or running for years on a coin cell battery in ultra-low power sensors, developers need solutions that are lean, reliable, and ready to scale with emerging use cases.

In talking with customers and keeping a close eye on where the IoT space is headed, one thing has become clear: there's a growing need for Bluetooth SoCs that are purpose-built for specific applications. Not every device needs every feature under the sun. Sometimes, it's about finding the right balance of performance, power, and cost for the job at hand. That’s exactly why we created the BG22L and BG24L Bluetooth Lite SoCs. These parts are lean, focused, and thoughtfully engineered for emerging use cases across different industries—from ultra-efficient beaconing to lightweight AI at the edge. They give you exactly what you need to build reliable, efficient products without over-engineering or overspending your design.

Why Bluetooth Lite SoCs are Ideal for IoT Applications

The “L” in BG22L and BG24L stands for Lite. It represents a targeted, application-optimized approach to Bluetooth SoC design. These Bluetooth Lite SoCs were created to deliver just the right feature set for resource-conscious IoT applications where every microwatt and memory kilobyte counts.

Let’s break down why these parts matter and what problems they’re solving.

BG24L Ultra-Low Power Bluetooth SoC: Smarter Devices That Know Where They Are and What They’re Doing

The BG24L low power Bluetooth SoC is designed with a clear mission: to power the next generation of sensor-based IoT applications that need Bluetooth 6.0 features, edge intelligence, and ultra-low power—all in one lean package.

At the heart of it is support for Bluetooth Channel Sounding. This feature, introduced in Bluetooth 6.0, allows devices to determine distance using two-way ranging, enabling sub-meter level accuracy. BG24L is ideal for devices that act as reflectors in this process—compact tags or end nodes that don’t need to perform heavy calculations, just respond accurately and efficiently to the initiating host device. Think asset tracking in warehouses, room-level presence detection in smart homes, or secure proximity-based access systems.

What makes the BG24L a great fit for this role is how well it balances radio performance, responsiveness, and power efficiency. It maintains a low 1.3 µA EM2 current with 16 kB RAM retention while offering solid -98 dBm RX sensitivity and +10 dBm TX power to ensure reliable communication even in dense or noisy environments.

Then there's PLFRCO, a self-calibrating RC oscillator that meets the ±500 ppm Bluetooth sleep clock accuracy requirement. It removes the need for an external crystal, which cuts down on system cost, saves board space, and simplifies the design — all while staying spec-compliant.

Where the BG24L really sets itself apart is in its AI/ML capabilities. With the built-in Matrix Vector Processor (MVP) enables on-device inferencing up to 8x faster and at 1/6th the power compared to CPU-only processing. That unlocks a whole range of applications where real-time data from sensors is used to detect patterns, learn over time, and trigger events without needing to stay connected to the cloud. This makes the BG24L an excellent fit for predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, and condition monitoring in industrial or agricultural settings. For example, sensors placed on a motor can continuously track temperature and vibration. If those values drift outside normal patterns, the device can flag it as a potential early failure, helping prevent downtime and extending the life of the equipment.

The BG24L was built specifically for sensor-driven, ML-capable devices. Flash and RAM are optimized for this class of applications, and if your ML use case demands more, Silicon Labs has other SoCs ready for that. But when it comes to edge inferencing on real-time sensor data, BG24L ultra-low power Bluetooth SoC hits the sweet spot—smart, efficient, and ready to deploy.

BG22L Small Bluetooth LE SoC: Built for Efficiency, Designed for Simplicity

The BG22L was built for one thing: efficiency. Whether it’s for beacons, simple sensors, or connectionless applications, this small Bluetooth LE SoC is designed to do more with less — using less power, taking up less space, and requiring fewer external components.

On the power side, we’re looking at 4.1 mA transmit current, 3.6 mA receive, and just 1.2 µA in EM2 with 8 kB RAM retention. That’s serious low-power performance for devices that need to run for years on something as small as a coin cell.

A standout feature is RFSense, which lets the device stay in deep sleep (EM2 or EM4) and only wake up when it detects RF energy — no need to turn on the main radio. And it's not limited to Bluetooth frequencies. RFSense works across a wide range, from 100 MHz to 5 GHz. In selective mode, it can even recognize specific On-Off Keying (OOK) patterns, so the device only wakes up when it sees exactly what it's programmed to respond to. That’s a big advantage in noisy RF environments where battery life really matters, such as sensors or even complex applications like tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS).

BG22L also includes PLFRCO, just like BG24L. This internal oscillator meets Bluetooth’s sleep clock accuracy requirements without the need for an external crystal, keeping your BOM lean and your design simple.

Even with its small footprint, BG22L delivers impressive peripheral performance, including a 14-bit ENOB ADC that provides high-resolution sensing without the need for an external ADC.

BG22L is all about giving you a self-contained SoC that’s optimized for focused, power-sensitive Bluetooth applications. It’s not trying to do everything — just what you need, done right.

Bluetooth Lite SoCs: A Smarter Strategy for IoT Design

With BG22L and BG24L, we set out to do something simple: build Bluetooth Lite SoCs that are laser-focused on solving real-world problems. Whether it's ultra-efficient beaconing, sensor-based anomaly detection, or precise location tracking using Channel Sounding, these new “Lite” SoCs are designed to meet the growing needs of IoT developers without unnecessary overhead.

They’re lean, cost-effective, and built with just the right features for IoT applications that are rapidly gaining momentum across industries—from asset tracking and smart agriculture to predictive maintenance and secure wireless control.

So, whether you're designing a battery-powered tag that needs to last for years or building smarter devices that can make decisions at the edge, BG22L and BG24L give you the tools to do more with less.