Firmware Development Service

Custom firmware for nRF52840 — delivered production-ready.

Steplab designs and delivers complete firmware for Nordic Semiconductor's nRF52840 — BLE 5.3, 802.15.4, NFC, USB, and more. From bare-metal drivers to full Zephyr RTOS applications.

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NORDIC nRF52840 — CAPABILITIES

Nordic Semiconductor

nRF52840

ARM Cortex-M4F @ 64 MHz · 1 MB Flash · 256 KB RAM

BLE 5.3

802.15.4

Thread

Zigbee

NFC-A

USB 2.0

Bluetooth LE 5.3

Long Range · Coded PHY

802.15.4 / Thread

OpenThread · Zigbee

NFC-A Tag

Pairing · Asset tracking

USB 2.0 FS

HID · CDC · DFU

BLE 5.3

Latest Bluetooth spec

Wireless protocols supported

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Typical delivery timeline

OTA

DFU over BLE / USB built-in

What we deliver

Everything you need for nRF52840 in production

Full-stack firmware built around your hardware and use case — from peripheral drivers to application logic, OTA DFU, and security.

BLE 5.3 stack integration

SoftDevice S140 or Zephyr BT stack — custom GATT profiles, services, advertising, bonding, and secure pairing tailored to your product.

OTA DFU over BLE / USB

Secure, bootloader-based firmware updates over Bluetooth LE or USB. Signed images, rollback protection, and resume support built in.

Thread & Zigbee meshes

OpenThread and Zigbee application development on 802.15.4 — from single-node sensors to multi-hop mesh networks with border routers.

Low-power optimization

System Manager, DC/DC, sleep modes, and peripheral scheduling tuned for years of battery life. We profile and measure, not estimate.

Peripheral driver development

SPI, I²C, UART, ADC, PWM, QSPI external flash — clean, interrupt-driven drivers with DMA where applicable.

Security & crypto

ARM TrustZone, CryptoCell-312, secure bootloader, encrypted storage, and authenticated BLE pairing. FIPS-compliant where required.

Wireless protocols

One chip. Every major wireless standard.

The nRF52840 is unique in supporting BLE, 802.15.4, NFC, and USB simultaneously. Steplab has deep expertise across all of them.

📶

Bluetooth LE 5.3

SoftDevice S140 / Zephyr

Custom GATT profiles, advertising, scanning, multi-connection, Long Range (Coded PHY), and direction finding.

🕸️

Thread / OpenThread

802.15.4 · IPv6

Full Thread device, sleepy end device, border router firmware. Works with Matter, HomeKit, and Google Home ecosystems.

⚡

Zigbee

802.15.4 · ZBOSS

Coordinator, router, and end-device firmware. Custom clusters, ZHA and ZLL profiles, smart home and industrial IoT.

📱

NFC-A Tag

ISO 14443-A · NDEF

Tap-to-pair, NFC handover for BLE, asset tracking, and NDEF record configuration for standard NFC readers.

🔌

USB 2.0 Full-Speed

HID · CDC · DFU · MSC

USB HID, CDC-ACM serial, Mass Storage, and composite device firmware. Custom class descriptors on request.

🔵

Bluetooth Mesh

BLE Mesh · Zephyr

Provisioner and node firmware for large-scale BLE mesh — lighting, building automation, and industrial monitoring.

Our process

From spec to production in four steps

A structured engineering process that eliminates surprises and ships working firmware on time.

Hardware & requirements audit

We review your schematic, antenna layout, power tree, and functional requirements before writing any code.

Architecture & stack selection

We define the firmware architecture — bare-metal vs Zephyr RTOS, SoftDevice version, memory map, and DFU strategy.

Development & validation

Built and validated on physical hardware using your exact board revision, RF test equipment, and protocol analysers.

Handoff & integration support

Full source code, CI hooks, and documentation. Two weeks of post-delivery engineering support included.

Developer first

Clean nRF5 SDK or Zephyr code — fully yours

No black-box libraries, no licensing fees. Clean, documented source delivered under your preferred license — nRF5 SDK or Zephyr RTOS.

✓ nRF5 SDK 17.x or Zephyr RTOS (nRF Connect SDK)

✓ SoftDevice S140 BLE stack integration

✓ RTOS-safe peripheral drivers with DMA

✓ Secure bootloader (MCUboot or nRF)

✓ Unit-tested with nRF PPK2 power profiling

Talk to an engineer

ble_service.c

hello world!

Ready to build your nRF52840 product?

Tell us your use case and hardware — we'll scope a firmware solution and quote within 48 hours.