The Development Kit includes a LTE antenna that supports bands in 690-960MHz and 1710-2200MHz. It has a dedicated GPS antenna for the nRF9160 version with built-in GPS, a 2.4GHz antenna can be used with Bluetooth 5, Bluetooth Mesh and IEEE 802.15.4 protocols, like Thread or Zigbee®. The nRF52840 SoC (System on Chip) is integrated as board controller and can be used, for example, to build a Bluetooth® Low Energy gateway. For further information on supported bands and certifications, click here.

Developers have access to all I/O pins and module interfaces via plug connectors, including an Arduino UNO Rev3 interface. The popular SEGGER J-Link OB is integrated for debugging and programming. It also provides a debug out function. 

The DK has both a 4FF SIM card slot and a MFF2 SIM footprint. A preloaded SIM card from iBasis with 10MB of data for LTE-M helps to kick-start developments. Furthermore, the nRF9160 DK has four LEDs, two buttons and two switches that are user-programmable. An overview of available firmware versions can be found here.

Additionally, Nordic offers compatible development tools, including the nRF Connect SDK (Software Development Kit). This extensible framework enables the development of very small applications in highly constrained circumstances and the programming of powerful, richly featured software for advanced applications. The nRF Connect for Cloud is a cloud-based IoT platform for development, test and evaluation of cellular IoT and Bluetooth Low Energy devices. The LTE Link Monitor uses AT commands to monitor the modem/link status and information about the network.

You will find more information on the nRF9160 DK on the e-commerce platform www.Rutronik24.com (where you can also place orders directly).