Matter Development Kit – How to Pick the Best Board for Your Matter Project

03/27/2024 | Mikko Nurmimaki | 3 Min Read

Matter is perhaps the most exciting technology today if you develop software and hardware for smart home and other ecosystem connected IoT devices. As a developer, you want the most efficient development kits and tools in place to get your work done quickly and without hassles. In this blog we walk you through the process of selecting the best Silicon Labs Matter development kit for your project.

Matter Development Kits for Thread End-Devices and Border Routers

Here is a rundown of our Matter development kits for developing and testing software for Thread-based end devices and border routers:

EFR32xG24 Explorer Kit

The EFR32xG24 Explorer Kit is a compact development and evaluation board based on the Silicon Labs EFR32MG24 system-on-chip (SoC). It’s designed for rapid IoT application prototyping and concept creation, and supports Thread, Bluetooth LE, and Matter, as well as other 15.4 protocols on the 2.4 GHz frequency band.

Despite its small size, this kit includes a wealth of features, including a USB interface, on-board SEGGER J-Link debugger, Packet Trace Interface, push buttons, and support for hardware add-on boards via a mikroBus socket and a Qwiic® connector, allowing you to connect to a virtually endless combination of boards from mikroE, SparkFun, AdaFruit, and Seeed Studios.

Learn more about the EFR32xG24 Explorer Kit.

EFR32xG24 Dev Kit

The EFR32xG24 Dev Kit is a compact, feature-packed development platform for developing and prototyping Matter-enabled wireless IoT devices. It supports up to +10 dBm output power and includes a 20-bit ADC and many other crucial embedded development features. Thanks to the AI/ML hardware accelerator, this Dev Kit is the ideal development board for developing AI/ML applications, in combination with platforms from TinyML, Edge Impulse, SensiML, and MicroAI.

Learn more about the EFR32xG24 Dev Kit.

EFR32xG24 Pro Kit

The EFR32xG24 Pro Kit (+20dBm) is a full-featured development platform for Matter-enabled IoT applications based on the EFR32xG24 SoC based on 2.4 GHz wireless protocols, including Thread and Bluetooth LE, among many other mesh and 15.4 protocols. The Pro Kit includes a Radio Board that provides a complete reference design for the EFR32xG24 wireless SoC and is the ideal platform for RF measurements, energy profiling and large networking testing. The WPK mainboard contains an onboard J-Link debugger with a Packet Trace Interface and a Virtual COM port, enabling application development and debugging of the attached Radio Board and external hardware through an expansion header. The xG24 Pro Kit provides all the necessary tools for developing Matter over Thread devices for commercial production.

If you already have the mainboard, you can just order the EFR32xG24 Radio Board (+20dBm) to save some money.

Learn more about the EFR32xG24 Pro Kit and Radio Board.

EFRxG21 Development Kits

The MG21 SoC-provide the same multiprotocol capabilities and exceptional RF performance as the MG24 devices, but are optimized for Matter over Thread Border Router applications.

Matter Development Kits for Wi-Fi

Here is a rundown of our Matter development kits for developing and testing software for Wi-Fi-based end devices.

SiWx917 Pro Kit

The SiWx917 Pro Kit allows you to develop Matter over Wi-Fi applications based on our SiWx917 ultra-low power SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth LE 5.4, and Matter. SiWx917 features a powerful, integrated ARM® Cortex®-M4 with FPU application processor and large memory to maximize your Matter devices. The Pro Kit consists of the SiWx917 SoC radio board and a mainboard with all the necessary tools for developing hostless single-chip Matter solutions based on ultra-low-power Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth LE 5.4 wireless. If you already have our Si-4002A mainboard, you can simply order the SiWx917 SoC Radio Board instead of the full Pro Kit and save some money.

Learn more about the SiWx917 Pro Kit and Radio Board.

SiWx917 NCP Expansion Kit

The SiWx917 Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth LE 5.4 Expansion Kit is a comprehensive platform for developing Matter over Wi-Fi applications, featuring an SiWx917 SoC functioning in a network coprocessor (NCP) or radio coprocessor (RCP) mode and controlled by an external host processor. This NCP Expansion Kit (A) includes SPI and SDIO connectors supporting Silicon Labs EFR SoCs as host processors. It also includes an EXP-to-SD-Card accessory board for compatibility with 3rd party MCU or MPU host platform’s SDIO connection.

Learn more about the SiWx917 NCP Expansion Kit.