Matter is an open-source standard hosted by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) that ensures seamless interaction between connected smart home and smart building devices across different IP technologies.
With Matter, multiple brands can interact smoothly and securely while ensuring data privacy, allowing wide adoption through a unified certification infrastructure.
Understand the Matter network
A Matter network brings together several types of devices, each with a specific role:
What is a Matter end device?
Connected objects, such as smart lighting, door locks, or sensors, that operate via Wi-Fi, Thread, or Ethernet.
What is a Matter controller?
Devices like smartphones, tablets, or smart hubs that commission (onboard) and manage devices on the network.
What are Thread border routers and Matter bridges?
Gateways that connect different networks: Thread border routers route Thread traffic to Wi-Fi or Ethernet networks, while Matter bridges bring non-IP devices into a Matter network.
Choose Wi-Fi, Thread, or Ethernet
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Note: In a mixed Wi-Fi and Thread installation, Matter over Thread end devices require a Thread border router to reach the Wi-Fi access point and the wider IP network.
Build your Matter device: step by step
Bring your Matter device to life with the connectivity, software, and security you need in one STM32 ecosystem. Choose Wi-Fi or Thread for end devices and bridges, consider Ethernet add-ons for gateways. Enable device onboarding with Bluetooth® Low Energy or make it intuitive with NFC commissioning. Optionally, use secure companion chips to further protect your Matter credentials.
ST Matter-ready solutions:
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Step 1: Choose your connectivity products
Click on the architecture that best suits your project to find the appropriate boards.
Choose the STM32U5/N6/H5 and add the ST67W611M1 to bring Matter to mains-powered, always-connected devices.
- Architecture: The STM32 host runs the Matter application using X-CUBE-MATTER, while the ST67W611M1 manages the operational Wi-Fi connection.
- Commissioning: Integrated Bluetooth® Low Energy is built into the ST67W611M1, so device onboarding works without a second radio.
- Design flexibility: Add Matter over Wi-Fi to an existing STM32 design without moving to a single connectivity SoC.
- Scalability: Pair the module with STM32 devices ranging from low-power to high-performance series: STM32U5 / STM32N6 / STM32H5.
Choose your STM32 based on the role your product plays in the Matter over Thread network: a low-power end device or a gateway that connects Thread devices to the wider IP network.
- For low-power Matter end devices: use the STM32WBA6 MCU. Its low-power design and built-in radio allow it to run Thread and Bluetooth® LE concurrently: Bluetooth® LE is used for pairing, while Thread carries everyday device communication on the operational network.
- For a Thread border router or gateway: use the STM32MP1 together with the STM32WBA5 MCU as a radio coprocessor. This architecture makes Thread devices reachable from the smart-home IP network, so they can be commissioned, controlled, and used through Matter.
When your Matter design needs to communicate with a non-Matter network, such as Zigbee or LoRa, you need a bridge. Use the Ethernet-enabled STM32H7 MCU to translate data between the two ecosystems.
Step 2: Add your Matter onboarding and commissioning method
Onboarding is the user-facing experience that starts when someone adds a new Matter device to a smart home or smart building network: either by scanning a QR code or by tapping a smartphone via NFC technology. Onboarding is the first part of the Matter commissioning process.
Commissioning is the back-end, secure technical process that makes the device trusted and operational on the Matter network. The controller verifies the device, establishes trust, gives it the network credentials, and adds it to the Matter fabric.
Create the Matter experience your project needs:
Bluetooth® LE is the Matter standard wireless commissioning method by default. It lets a Matter controller, such as a smartphone or tablet, discover and onboard a Matter device. For Matter over Wi-Fi and Matter over Thread designs, Bluetooth® LE is required for compliance, unless Ethernet is used as the sole network interface. Since Bluetooth® LE is already integrated in the ST67W611M1 and STM32WBA, no separate radio is needed. Additional methods, such as NFC, can also be added to enhance the commissioning experience.
Make Matter onboarding intuitive with the optional ST25DA-C NFC chip.
- Convenient: Just tap with a smartphone, no need to open the camera to scan the QR code.
- No power required: Ideal for pre-commissioning or for installers commissioning unpowered devices.
- Secure credentials: The ST25DA-C embedded secure element protects sensitive Matter credentials.
- More value after installation: The ST25DA-C supports additional use cases, such as secure storage or updating settings.
Step 3: Bring your project to life with our Matter software
X-CUBE-MATTER is our Matter software development kit. It supports key Matter capabilities, including over-the-air updates, provisioning services, and sleeping end devices. Available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Get started with STM32 development boards and ready-to-use X-CUBE-MATTER examples in STM32Cube.
Build from application examples, then adapt the closest example to your own design. An additional STM32 MPU project on GitHub demonstrates Thread border router functionality.
Need an example for another device type? Ask us through the ST Community or read our STM32 Wiki, get step-by-step guidance from prototyping to certification.
Step 4: Certify your Matter device
Certification is critical. Completing the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) certification proves that a device complies with the Matter standard. ST makes the certification process easier with Matter-certified platforms:
- Matter over Wi-Fi (CSA certificate)
- Matter over Thread (CSA certificate)
Step 5: Give every Matter device a trusted identity
Before a device can join a Matter network, it must prove that it is genuine and certified. You must therefore provision each device with unique Matter credentials. These credentials help protect the Matter network from unauthorized or cloned devices.
To prove that each Matter device is genuine and interoperable, you need to generate a unique Device Attestation Certificate and private key, provision them securely, and manage their lifecycle. You have three options to source your Matter credentials:
- Do it on your own: Generate, provision, and maintain credentials using your own Matter-authorized public key infrastructure.
- For STM32 MCUs, use Aurora networks: Choose this option to provision Matter credentials directly on an STM32 MCU. Our ST partner Aurora networks (former CommScope) provides a provisioning client integrated with STM32, along with the PKI infrastructure and services needed to generate, deliver, and manage credentials across your device lifecycle.
- For ST secure companion chips, use ST MatterConnect: Choose this option when your design includes an eligible ST secure companion chip, such as ST25DA-C or STSAFE-A. ST generates and provisions the Matter credentials into the secure hardware at its secure manufacturing sites, so private keys remain isolated from the STM32 application processor. ST also manages credentials across your device lifecycle. Learn more about ST MatterConnect.
Frequently Asked Questions
Choose Wi-Fi for mains-powered devices that need direct network access, higher data throughput, or cloud connectivity. Choose Thread for battery-powered or low-data-rate devices that benefit from low-power mesh networking. Also consider the existing installation: Matter over Thread requires a Thread border router, while Matter over Wi-Fi connects through a standard Wi-Fi access point.
Choose Ethernet for fixed, mains-powered devices that need a reliable, wired connection, stable performance, and low latency, such as gateways, hubs, bridges, controllers, and building infrastructure. Ethernet is also useful when the device serves as a dependable backbone for other Matter networks.
Not always. Matter over Wi-Fi devices use the existing Wi-Fi router or access point. Matter over Thread devices need a Thread border router to connect the Thread mesh to the home or building IP network. This capability may already be built into a compatible smart-home hub, speaker, or Wi-Fi router, so check the target ecosystem before adding dedicated hardware.
Often, yes. A hosted architecture can keep the application on the existing STM32 while adding the connectivity required for Matter. Developers should first verify memory, interfaces, security, and over-the-air update requirements.
Confirm that the reference example builds, commissions, joins the operational network, exchanges commands, and reconnects correctly. This provides a known baseline before product-specific development begins. Read our Wiki.
Define it early because it affects hardware, enclosure design, user interaction, manufacturing data, and testing. Consider device accessibility, whether it is powered during onboarding, and whether Bluetooth LE only, or Bluetooth LE + NFC best fit the installation journey.
Plan them before production architecture is frozen. Credential storage, PKI ownership, provisioning, factory processes, and certificate lifecycle management can influence hardware selection and manufacturing operations. ST offers a credential service with ST MatterConnect for ST25DA-C or STSAFE-A and through an Authorized Partner for STM32s with Aurora networks.
Test commissioning, removal and recommissioning, network loss and recovery, incorrect credentials, over-the-air updates, low-power behavior, and interoperability with the targeted ecosystems. ST Matter validation flow integrates interoperability testing with Matter ecosystems.
Typical causes include provisioning errors, network incompatibility, discovery timeouts, incorrect onboarding data, and certificate issues. Diagnose the flow stage by stage: discovery, secure session establishment, attestation, network configuration, and operational discovery.
Plan secure firmware updates, version compatibility, diagnostics, recovery behavior, and regression testing from the beginning. Also define how Matter credentials and certificates will be securely stored, provisioned, revoked if compromised, and recovered over the product lifecycle. ST can support credential provisioning and lifecycle management through ST MatterConnect or its authorized partner, Aurora networks.
