Author: Josh Mickolio, Director of Business Development for Carriers, Wireless and IoT, at DigiKey
The cloud of confusion surrounding smart home development has been significantly reduced with the introduction of Matter, a new technology standard introduced by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA). If you've ever purchased devices to make your home a little smarter, you might appreciate the impact Matter is having on the smart home sector.
We all have one or more favorite smart home ecosystems, which can be from Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung or the many other options available. Having so many options is usually a great thing, unless you are a Company that develops and maintains all those options. Matter now allows these Companies to design a product, i.e. a wireless light bulb, which will now be compatible with all these popular smart home platforms.
With Matter, and you may have already noticed this by searching for Matter keywords on the Internet, searches may or may not return the desired results. My search on some popular search engines for “Matter Starter Kit” mostly returned results for some role-playing games. We thought it would be useful to give a brief introduction to Matter-compatible devices and development kits.
Matter is an open source standard managed by the CSA, and like most standards organizations such as the Wi-Fi Alliance, Bluetooth SIG, and others, the CSA does a great job of highlighting devices certified for use with Matter. . The CSA website contains a wealth of resources, FAQs, documentation and much more at https://csa-iot.org/all-solutions/matter/. The CSA has a search engine for certified products on its website, located at https://csa-iot.org/csa-iot_products/. On this page you will find two areas, one for searching for final products and another for compliant platforms.
Image credit – CSA
Additionally, the “Program Type” filter on the left of the certified product search page lists all CSA-supported technologies, one of which is Matter. Listed below are some Matter compliant suppliers and products. Please note that this is not a complete list, as there are other variants of these devices, not to mention other companies that use these chips in their modules, devices, etc.
| Company name | Part Number (Link) | Description |
| Texas Instruments | LP-CC2652R7 | Matter Yarn Evaluation Kit |
| Microchip | EV36W50A | Wi-Fi Matter Evaluation Board |
| STMicro | NUCLEO-WB55RG | Matter Thread Evaluation Board with STM32WB5 |
| NXP | IOTZTB-DK006 | Matter Thread Development Kit based on K32W041/061 |
| NXP | OM15080-K32W | Matter USB Dongle (Can be used as a thread edge router) |
| Espressif | ESP32-C3-DEVKITM-1 | Wi-Fi/Thread Matter Evaluation Board with ESP32 |
| Sparkfun | DEV-20270 | Evaluation board, based on Silicon Labs MGM240P |
| Silicon Labs | XG24-PK6009A | Thread evaluation board for EFR32MG24 |
| Nordic Semiconductor | THINGY53 | Matter Yarn Evaluation Kit |
| Silicon Labs | RS9116X-SB-EVK2 | Matter Wi-Fi/Thread Evaluation Board with RS9116 |
| Infineon | CY8CKIT-062S2-43012 | Wi-Fi Matter Evaluation Board for PSOC 6 and CYW43012 |
Another extremely useful reference is the CHIP (Matter) Project github, https://github.com/project-chip/connectedhomeip. There are plenty of examples here for your coding enjoyment.
When developing a Matter-compliant project, you'll find that many things remain the same, including the need for coding for connectivity and sensors. The difference is that now Matter must also be included. By using one of the many examples mentioned above, you can save yourself a lot of time. There are many different language examples available, including but not limited to C++, Java, and Python, making it a great option for any developer.
When Matter was developed, there were many things to consider, but three key factors were reliability, security, and seamless integration. These factors continually improve as new versions come out. Some of the main security factors are single device bonding authentication, secure over-the-air updates, and network-wide privacy and integrity. Using the resources listed above, a developer can ensure that these security measures and many more are incorporated into their project. To learn more about IoT security, visit https://csa-iot.org/resources/security/.
Sparkfun Thing Plus Matter Evaluation Board
The goal of the Matter technology standard is to unify and simplify smart home devices, and it emerged as part of a highly collaborative, three-year effort between an alliance of standards and industry giants. However, if we dig deeper into IT, we can begin to appreciate it for what it is, more than 20 years of enormous efforts and an evolution of many different technologies that is radically changing the face of today's smart home.
The goal of the Matter technology standard is to unify and simplify smart home connectivity.
To learn more and get started with Matter visit digikey.com/matter.
Josh Mickolio is the business development manager for carriers, wireless and IoT at Digikey. DigiKey is both a leader and continuing innovator in the distribution of high-service electronic components and automation products worldwide, providing more than 17,2 million components from more than 2.800 quality brand manufacturers.
