Unexpected High Current Draw on nRF54L15 DK During Sleep Mode

RE: Unexpected High Current Draw on nRF54L15 DK During Sleep Mode

Kenneth — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 20:49:08 GMT

Hi,

To save power the regulators operate in refresh mode, only for short periods turning on to charge it's decoupling capacitor. So this is normal.

Kenneth

RE: Unexpected High Current Draw on nRF54L15 DK During Sleep Mode

PKG — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 19:58:34 GMT

Hi,

During the system_off sleep‑current measurement, I’m seeing periodic spikes in the current. What are these spikes?

Thanks,

RE: Unexpected High Current Draw on nRF54L15 DK During Sleep Mode

Kenneth — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 08:24:20 GMT

Hi,

We don't have any specific hex files, there should be various examples in nRF connect sdk that can be used.

You can find typical current consumption values here for different modes:
https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ps_nrf54L15/page/chapters/current_consumption/doc/current_consumption.html#ariaid-title4

Kenneth

RE: Unexpected High Current Draw on nRF54L15 DK During Sleep Mode

PKG — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 20:17:21 GMT

Hi,

Now I’m measuring a sleep current of 4.04 µA on the DK board. Could you share the hex file you use for current‑measurement on your nRF54L15 DK? I’ll measure the sleep current on your board using that file.

Thanks,

RE: Unexpected High Current Draw on nRF54L15 DK During Sleep Mode

PKG — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 19:33:36 GMT

Hi Kenneth,

I’m working with the peripheral_power_profiling sample, and I noticed you recommended using system_off. Can both of these samples be used to measure sleep‑mode current?

I am getting a build failure system_off sample setting CONFIG_SERIAL=n.

Thanks,

RE: Unexpected High Current Draw on nRF54L15 DK During Sleep Mode

PKG — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 22:57:27 GMT

Hi Kenneth,

We’ll test with another DK board and keep you updated.

Thanks,

RE: Unexpected High Current Draw on nRF54L15 DK During Sleep Mode

Kenneth — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 22:09:23 GMT

Hello,

If you measure something as high as 74mA then it's something fundamentally wrong with the hardware, either the DK or the measurement equipment. Maybe there is a short-circuit somewhere.

Here are some suggestions you can try:

Check out the DK description if you haven't already:
https://docs.nordicsemi.com/bundle/ug_nrf54l15_dk/page/UG/nRF54L15_DK/measurements/current_measurements.html

Also use the board configurator to disable leds, uarts and set the board to the supply voltage you want to measure, e.g. here is a screenshot of the board configurator and the things you can disable:

If you are using the PPK2 for measurement, then I suggest to set the PPK 2 in source mode.

If you need an example you can use zephyr\samples\boards\nordic\system_off (make sure to set CONFIG_SERIAL=n to disable debugging to measure power).

Alternatively, if you want to experiment with ram retention I am attaching a project that show how it can be done. You should measure in the very low uA with this example.

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../ram_5F00_ret.zip

Note! Make sure to build for target nRF54l15dk/nrf54l15/cpuapp

Hope this helps,
Kenneth