A low cost electronic BOM

CSR believes this BlueVOX QFN-based design has one of the lowest electronic bill of materials (eBOM) of any Bluetooth headset. The typical eBOM for a product manufactured in volume would be under $6 - including a lithium battery.  The design is also suitable for use with Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) cells - giving OEMs/ODMs the opportunity of reducing eBOM costs even further.

At the heart of the design is a ROM version of CSR's well-known single chip Bluetooth IC, BlueCore. It also includes integrated CODEC, battery charger and DC-DC converter. This device is packaged in a 56-pin QFN (quad, flat, no lead) package. Compared with previous BGA-packaged Bluetooth ICs, QFN simplifies the headset PCB. CSR's Headset Refresh reference design requires just a simple single sided, two layer PCB.

The simpler QFN-based interconnection to the silicon additionally helps to improve RF performance. The device has a +5.5dBm transmitter, and -88dBm receiver, great call quality in difficult environments.