Sidewalk Devkit

Sidewalk Devkit

KiCad hardware design for a compact Nordic Semiconductor devkit built around an nRF54L15 target, nPM1300 power management, and an SX1262 sub-GHz radio front end.

Hardware

• nRF54L15-QFAA target SoC with external 32 MHz and 32.768 kHz crystals.
• nPM1300-QEAA PMIC for USB/battery power management, charging, and status LEDs.
• SX1262IMLTRT sub-GHz transceiver with RF switch/filter network, U.FL, and chip antenna footprints.
• On-board nRF52833-QDXX debug helper with USB, SWD, UART, and level-translated target boundary.
• USB-C input with ESD protection and a 1 A fuse.
• Battery connector, reset/user buttons, and board-edge debug/test access.
• STEMMA QT I2C expansion connector.
• SHT4x humidity/temperature sensor, ADXL367 accelerometer, and ZD25WQ16CEIGR QSPI flash.
• NFC connector footprint and user/status LEDs.

Board

Passed Qualification Tests

• Flashing the nRF54L15 target from the on-board nRF52833 debug helper.
• RTT logging.
• UART logging.
• BLE validation.
• NFC validation.
• Sensor and PMIC logging from SHT40, ADXL367, and nPM1300.
• SX1262 radio operation in both FSK and LoRa modes.
• Sidewalk operation over all transports.

Top

Bottom

Schematic Structure

The design is split into hierarchical KiCad sheets:

• sch/nRF54L15.kicad_sch - target SoC, sensors, QSPI flash, STEMMA QT, NFC, and user IO.
• sch/SX1262.kicad_sch - sub-GHz radio, RF matching/filtering, antenna switch, and RF connectors.
• sch/nPM1300.kicad_sch - USB-C, battery input, PMIC rails, charger support, and PMIC LEDs.
• sch/Debugger.kicad_sch - on-board debug helper, target SWD/UART boundary, and level shifting.

Repository Layout

.
|-- Sidewalk_Devkit.kicad_pro   KiCad project
|-- Sidewalk_Devkit.kicad_sch   Top-level schematic
|-- Sidewalk_Devkit.kicad_pcb   PCB layout
|-- sch/                        Hierarchical schematic sheets
|-- lib/                        Local symbols, footprints, and 3D models
|-- docs/images/                README render images
|-- build/                      Local generated outputs, ignored by git
`-- debug_helper_parts.md       Notes for the debug-helper boundary parts

Regenerating Outputs

The README images are rendered directly from the KiCad PCB:

mkdir -p docs/images

kicad-cli pcb render Sidewalk_Devkit.kicad_pcb \
  --output docs/images/sidewalk-devkit-hero.png \
  --width 1800 --height 1000 \
  --background opaque --quality high --perspective \
  --rotate '-35,0,35' --zoom 0.84

kicad-cli pcb render Sidewalk_Devkit.kicad_pcb \
  --output docs/images/sidewalk-devkit-top.png \
  --width 1600 --height 900 \
  --side top --background opaque --quality high --zoom 1.12

kicad-cli pcb render Sidewalk_Devkit.kicad_pcb \
  --output docs/images/sidewalk-devkit-bottom.png \
  --width 1600 --height 900 \
  --side bottom --background opaque --quality high --zoom 1.12

Useful local exports:

mkdir -p build

kicad-cli sch export pdf Sidewalk_Devkit.kicad_sch \
  --output build/schematic.pdf

kicad-cli pcb export step Sidewalk_Devkit.kicad_pcb \
  --output build/board.step

kicad-cli sch export bom Sidewalk_Devkit.kicad_sch \
  --output build/bom.csv \
  --fields Reference,Value,Footprint,QUANTITY,DNP \
  --group-by Value,Footprint

The custom EasyEDA-derived footprints and 3D models live under lib/. STEP export may still warn if a local KiCad installation does not include every referenced stock KiCad 3D model.

Run design checks before fabrication or release:

mkdir -p build
kicad-cli sch erc Sidewalk_Devkit.kicad_sch --output build/erc.rpt
kicad-cli pcb drc Sidewalk_Devkit.kicad_pcb --output build/drc.rpt

License

This hardware design is licensed under the CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2

• Permissive. See LICENSE.