lowest possible current consumption when system is running (nRF52810)

[buja]

Chip - BT832AF (nRF52810 QFAA)

SDK- nRF5_SDK_17.0.2_d674dde

SD - s112_nrf52_7.2.0

2V- power supply

  My application need not to be very fast, but is extremely concerned about the power consumption. My application  sends beacon, communicates with sensor (SPI).

My device is drawing a current of 330nA during system OFF, 1 uA during system ON. are these the lowest figures I can get ?

Is it possible to reduce the clock frequency to save even more current during the controller is running/systemON/OFF ?

[Simonr]

Hi,

I'm not familiar with the STM32CubeMonitor-Power, and from its features I only see the expected accuracy for specific development kits. Can you confirm whether it is specified for measuring power consumption on custom devices as well?

From the graph this seems like noise/interference of some kind, and there could be quite a few things causing this. To exclude firmware for instance, you can try going to system OFF to see if there are any spikes when measuring there as well.

It could also be that one or more of your GPIOs are floating. It could also be the equipment you're using. If you measure using an Ampere meter for instance you can confirm whether this is the case, as an ampere meter is generally better at showing the average current consumption over time.

Best regards,

Simon

[buja]

Hi Simon,

Thank you for your reply. I will confirm the STM32CubeMonitor-Power dependency.

I checked the current consumption in systemOFF and noise is there too. Please see the below given figure. The average current sometimes even go higher.

 

All the GPIOs are in the default state (I hope it is not floating).

int main(void)
{

// Initialize.
log_init();
power_init();
power_management_init();
enable_softdevice();

while(1) {
nrf_pwr_mgmt_shutdown(NRF_PWR_MGMT_SHUTDOWN_GOTO_SYSOFF);
}

 The poser consumption graph is for the above code.

[Simonr]

Okay, then this is related to the HW or your measurement setup it seems. I would like you to try using an Amperemeter as suggested, as that should give you a steady current draw of ~0.8uA while asleep. If not, that indicates an issue with the HW of your device.

Best regards,

Simon

[buja]

Thank you for your reply Simon. I will try to get the measurement done on an ammeter as suggested and will let you know