Bluetooth 4.0 – For Low Power and Compact Applications

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has just announced the release of Bluetooth version 4.0. This came fast because version 3.0 was released only last April of this year. While the aim of Bluetooth 3.0 is to offer faster transfer speeds with the introduction of WiFi transfer (at the expense of high energy consumption), version 4.0 is targeting applications that utilize less energy and require smaller form factors. This new development will make way for new markets in various fields like home entertainment, fitness, sports, security, and healthcare. Sample devices that that can take advantage of Bluetooth 4.0 are wristwatches, remote controls, calculators, biophysical monitors and many more. The new version specifies several power modes – idle, lower peak, average, and 4.0 devices can be powered by standard coin-cell batteries. The specifications also support data packet transfers at speeds up to 1Mbps and provides full AES-128 encryption. The new standard offers two variants – dual-mode that integrates the low energy feature of Bluetooth 4.0 to existing devices, and single-mode that utilizes a lightweight link layer to implement very low-power idle mode to new devices.