Arrow Electronics Launches Power‑Efficient Sharky IoT Wireless Modules

Arrow Electronics has launched a new line of radio modules designed to accelerate IoT device development. Powered by STMicroelectronics’ STM32WB55 wireless microcontroller, the modules—codenamed Sharky—combine power‑efficient dual‑core performance with a robust wireless stack. The Sharky family was co‑developed with Italian design studio Midatronics.

The STM32WB55 integrates a 2.4 GHz RF transceiver that supports Bluetooth 5 (including BLE), Thread, and Zigbee. Its dual ARM Cortex‑M architecture delivers real‑time secure application performance on the 64 MHz Cortex‑M4F core, while the co‑integrated Cortex‑M0+ core handles radio management and security tasks independently.

Two base models, MDX-STWBP‑01 and MDX-STWUP‑R01, give developers the flexibility to choose between an on‑board PCB antenna or a UFL connector for an external antenna. Antenna‑balun circuitry is built into the MCU. The Sharkypro variants—MDX-STWBC‑R01 and MDX-STWBW‑R01—offer a chip antenna or no antenna option, respectively.

With a shutdown current of just 13 nA and 600 nA in standby (RTC and RAM powered), the modules are remarkably energy‑efficient. They deliver a receive sensitivity of −96 dBm, programmable RF output power, and draw only 4.5 mA during reception and 0 dBm during transmission. The STM32WB55 also provides hardware‑based encryption, public‑key authorization, a true random number generator, and secure customer key storage.

Both Sharky and Sharkypro modules come pre‑installed with the 32 MHz RF crystal and 32.7 kHz reference crystal required by the MCU, making them ready for immediate integration. Developers can further accelerate their projects using ST’s STM32Cube ecosystem, which includes MCU configuration tools, middleware, peripheral drivers, connectivity libraries, and an RF monitoring tool. Physical dimensions are 16 × 27.25 mm for Sharky and 14.6 × 23 mm or 14.6 × 14.6 mm for Sharkypro.