Power consumption when transmitting BLE advertising packets

Hi everyone,
I'm using the nRF54L05 MCU (SDK v2.9.0) for my application.
I have an issue where, when I measure the current consumption during BLE advertising packet transmission, I notice that the current is not stable.
I'm setting the antenna TX power to 0 dBm (default).
According to the datasheet, the current at 0 dBm should be approximately 5 mA.

Additionally, I'm certain that during that time, the device is only performing BLE advertising and nothing else.
After that, I use the sys_poweroff() function to put the system into sleep mode, and use GRTC to wake it up.
So I have two questions:

  1. How can I make the current consumption more stable during advertising?

  2. How can I achieve a current consumption close to the 5 mA stated in the datasheet?

Many thanks

Parents
  • No, those peaks are expected. Its just not easy to read this from the PS/datasheet information, as the electrical stuff is stated in multiple places and you also needed to know how BTLE is supposed to work.

    BTLE advertising has the radio turned OFF for most of the time, its only turned on in TX mode to send and then in RX mode for a short time in order to receive scan/connect requests. Same for the CPU core - thus you get single digit µA current cosumtion during the pause time.

    You will not achieve steady current consumtion with BTLE turned on - that is simply not intended at all.

  • Thank you for your response.
    I have one more question: how can I reduce the current consumption to below 8 mA?
    Would adjusting the capacitors associated with DECA, DECRF, or DECD help in stabilizing or lowering the current?

  • You can try enabling the DCDC, but <5mA does not sound likely to me. Note that I don't have a NRF54X chip here for testing (not a nordic employee).

    What you can do is place a few hundred µF worth of capacitors in parallel to your battery. This way you can use like a CR2032 as a power source.

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