What should AVDD be when VDD = 3V?

[i_am_trying]

I am checking values of my PCB with an nRF51822. VDD = 3V. AVDD ~= 800mV

I was expecting a the AVDD voltage drop to be much less. What should the AVDD voltage be? What could be causing the drop i am seeing on my DMM?

thank you.

[MartinBL]

Hi.

When the radio is active and the DC/DC converter is enabled then AVDD should measure ~1.8V. Under what circumstances are you measuring? I assume you have a DC/DC converter setup with an inductor and capacitor at AVDD. Is the radio active? The DC/DC converter is turned ON only when the radio is running.

EDIT: Clarifiaction: From Chapter 9 in the Reference Manual V3.0: "Enabling the DC/DC converter will not turn it on, but set it in a state where it automatically gets turned on when the radio is enabled and goes off again when the radio gets disabled. This is done to avoid wasting power running the DC/DC in between the radio events where current consumption is too low." So there is an important difference between "enabled/disabled" and "turned on/off".

• When the DC/DC is enabled and turned ON then AVVD should measure ~1.8V.
• When the DC/DC is enabled and turned OFF then AVDD is undefined. Maybe this is true in your case?
• When the DC/DC is disabled then AVDD should be equal to VDD.

As you can see in Figure 9 in Chapter 9 VDD is connected directly to AVDD when the DC/DC converter is disabled and vise versa.

Try this:

NRF_POWER->DCDCEN = 1;
NRF_RADIO->TASKS_TXEN = 1;
NRF_RADIO->TASKS_START = 1;

This will enable the DC/DC converter and turn on the radio and hence, the DC/DC converter is also ON. With this code I am measuring 1.88V on AVDD on my nRF51 DK kit.

Now you can try this:

//NRF_POWER->DCDCEN = 1;
NRF_RADIO->TASKS_TXEN = 1;
NRF_RADIO->TASKS_START = 1;

Now the DC/DC converter is disabled and AVDD is directly connected to VDD and is measuring 2.82V.

Finally try this:

NRF_POWER->DCDCEN = 1;
//NRF_RADIO->TASKS_TXEN = 1;
//NRF_RADIO->TASKS_START = 1;

The DC/DC converter is now enabled, but OFF so my AVDD now measures anywhere between 0V - 1.1V.

Finally, have a look at this great thread about power management: LDO vs DCDC

[MartinBL]

No worries. As you say AVDD should not be used to power anything else. And btw, we have seen customers wanting to power other components with DEC1 and DEC2 as well. This is also in no way recommended. Similar to AVDD the DEC1 & 2 pins are only there to enable decoupling of the internal LDOs. They are not to be used to power anything else.