Designing Low-Power Bluetooth LE Products

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Design
Lesson 1 – Power consumption essentials
4 Topics | 1 Quiz
A typical Bluetooth LE product architecture
Bluetooth LE communication methods
Electrical quantities
Exercise 1 – Estimating power budget
Lesson 1 quiz
Lesson 2 – Designing with a Nordic PMIC
7 Topics | 1 Quiz
PMIC overview
System management features with Nordic PMICs
System efficiency considerations
PMIC hardware integration
PMIC software integration
Getting started with Nordic PMICs
Exercise 1 – Powering nRF54L devices from a single AA/AAA battery
Lesson 2 quiz
Measure
Lesson 3 – Tools and best practices for power measurement
5 Topics | 1 Quiz
Current measurement fundamentals
Current measurement equipment: Capabilities, limitations, and best practices
Measurement setup validation and error mitigation
Exercise 1 – Setup verification using System OFF
Exercise 2 – Bluetooth LE advertising power profiling and data extrapolation
Lesson 3 quiz
Optimize
Lesson 4 – Bluetooth LE power optimization
4 Topics | 1 Quiz
Bluetooth LE advertising parameters and power consumption
Bluetooth LE connection parameters and power consumption
Exercise 1 – Optimizing power consumption during Bluetooth LE advertising
Exercise 2 – Optimizing power consumption in a Bluetooth LE connection
Lesson 4 quiz
Lesson 5 – SoC specific power optimization I
6 Topics | 1 Quiz
Clock sources
Peripherals
Memory retention and sleep modes
Exercise 1 – Estimating and measuring how clock sources affect power consumption
Exercise 2 – Comparing current consumption of peripherals from different power domains
Exercise 3 – Measuring the impact of RAM retention settings
Lesson 5 quiz
Lesson 6 – SoC specific power optimization II
6 Topics | 1 Quiz
GPIO interrupt types on the nRF54L Series
DPPI Distributed programmable peripheral interconnect
Direct Memory Access (EasyDMA)
Exercise 1 – Measuring sleep current with different GPIO interrupt types
Exercise 2 – Reducing CPU activity by connecting peripherals with DPPI
Exercise 3 – Reducing current consumption with EasyDMA
Lesson 6 quiz
Monitor
Lesson 7 – Remote monitoring of Bluetooth LE devices with nRF Cloud
8 Topics | 1 Quiz
Why remote observability matters for low-power Bluetooth LE devices
Key data points for Bluetooth LE connection stability and power efficiency
Integrating the Memfault SDK into a Bluetooth LE peripheral application
Fleet-wide analysis and debugging with nRF Cloud
Exercise 1 – Setting up the Memfault SDK on an nRF54L Series DK
Exercise 2 – Exploring the automatically collected Bluetooth LE metrics
Exercise 3 – Observing the impact of connection parameter changes on metrics
Exercise 4 – Invoking a firmware update over Bluetooth LE (OTA)
Lesson 7 quiz
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Peripherals

The nRF54L Series SoCs are equipped with a range of standard and extended peripherals for various purposes (serial communication, analog peripherals, and more).

Enabling a peripheral affects the power consumption. It increases both the device’s sleep current and the active current when the peripheral operates as intended. When prioritizing low power, it is important to learn how to estimate and measure the power consumption of the various system components and peripherals in the nRF54L Series.

These peripherals are located in different power domains to enable better power management. This topic demonstrates how these peripherals are mapped to different power domains inside the chip, how to estimate and measure power consumption from various system components and peripherals in the nRF54L Series, how to select a peripheral from a specific power domain, and the impact on power consumption.

Peripherals and power domains

There are four power domains in the nRF54L Series:

  • MCU domain (MCU)
    • Peripherals in this domain are the high-speed peripherals.
    • The MCU domain operates on a 128 MHz clock.
    • Peripherals in this domain that have a numeric ID starting with the number 0 (for example, UARTE00).
  • Radio domain (RADIO)
    • This domain contains the 2.4 GHz radio and peripherals that support the radio protocol stack.
    • The RADIO domain runs at 32 MHz.
    • Peripherals in this domain that have a numeric ID starting with the number 1 (for example, TIMER10).
  • Peripheral domain (PERI)
    • This domain contains most of the peripherals on the chip.
    • The PERI domain operates at 16 MHz.
    • Peripherals in this domain that have a numeric ID starting with the number 2 (for example, UARTE20).
  • Low-power domain (LP)
    • This domain is dedicated to peripherals designed for ultra-low power modes.
    • THE LP domain runs at 16 MHz.
    • Peripherals in this domain that have a numeric ID starting with the number 3 (for example, UARTE30).
Fig. 1. nRF54LM20B block diagram
Fig.2. nRF54L15|nRF54L10|nRF54L05 block diagram

Peripherals power consumption

Power consumption details for the different peripherals are listed in the nRF54L Series SoC datasheet (for example, nRF54L15 | nRF54L10 | nRF54L05). These numbers will help you estimate how much power will be drawn when a peripheral is enabled, both when it is active and when it is asleep.

Selecting peripherals

When designing a low-power device, it is recommended to prioritize peripherals in the LP (low-power) domain, as they use less power and have lower leakage current during sleep. Peripherals in the MCU domain are typically designed for high-speed operation and more advanced features, so they should be used only when the high-performance capabilities are truly required.

It is crucial to select the right peripheral for the task at hand. To give some examples, UARTE peripherals are available in three domains:

  • One UARTE00 in the MCU domain, which supports and is intended for high-speed operations.
  • Three standard UARTE20-22 in the PERI domain.
  • One low-power UARTE30 in the LP domain.

For the same operating conditions (baud rate, data), the UARTE00 will have a higher active current consumption than the one in the LP-domain (UARTE30). More importantly, the leakage current during sleep for the UART30 is much lower than that of the UARTE00. This is more evident at higher temperatures.

If the application does not use the high-speed features of UARTE00, it is more power-efficient to use UART30 instead.

The same concept applies to other peripherals. The Exercise 2 focuses on the power consumption of TIMER00 and TIMER20, both operating at 1 MHz, revealing that the TIMER00 in the MCU domain consumes more power than TIMER20 (in the PERI domain) at the same operating frequency.

How to know which peripherals are enabled in a given nRF Connect SDK application

In an nRF Connect SDK application or sample, it is not always clear which peripherals it enables or uses.

This section covers simple methods for identifying the enabled and actually used peripherals in an nRF Connect SDK application and verifying whether they have interrupt setups.

  1. Build your application or sample for a specific board and a specific board target for a given nRF Connect SDK version. This is required because board targets differ in enabled peripherals.

See, for example, the Bluetooth: Peripheral UART sample and find out which peripherals on the nRF54L15 SoC it uses.

Build it for the nRF54L15 DK, board target nrf54l15dk/nrf54l15/cpuapp, using the nRF Connect SDK v3.1.0.

Fig. 3. Peripheral uart sample
  1. Examine the enabled devicetree peripherals using the editor or the DeviceTree Visual Editor in nRF Connect extension for VS Code.

If you are using the editor, the generated devicetree file (zephyr.dts) is located in the /<app_name>/build/<image_name>/zephyr/ folder. The enabled peripherals have the status = “okay”.

Generated devicetree file

You can also use the Devicetree Visual Editor to view this in a graphical representation of the devicetree nodes.

Devicetree visual editor

Note

An enabled devicetree node for a peripheral (status=”okay”) does not guarantee that the peripheral is used by the firmware. It basically means the following:

  • The hardware exists and is available. The SoC/board declares the peripheral is present.
  • Zephyr’s devicetree tooling will generate macros for it, so C code can reference it.

For a peripheral to be functional in the firmware, both its devicetree and the Kconfig option of its driver must be enabled.

  1. Check the generated Kconfig file to see which peripherals have drivers enabled. You can also use the editor or the nRF Kconfig GUI.

The generated Kconfig file (.config) for a given application can be found in the /<app_name>/build/<image_name>/zephyr/ folder.

Generated Kconfig file

Alternatively, you can use the nRF Kconfig GUI to check this.

nRF Kconfig GUI

Now, you know which peripherals are actually used in the firmware, and which are just enabled by the devicetree but not used.

For example:

  • NFCT (nfct) → status = "okay" in devicetree, but the CONFIG_NRFX_NFCT Kconfig option is not enabled → not used
  • PWM20 (pwm20) → status = "okay" in devicetree, but the CONFIG_NRFX_PWM20 or CONFIG_PWM Kconfig option is not enabled → not used
  • ADC (adc) → status = "okay" in devicetree, but the CONFIG_NRFX_SAADC or CONFIG_ADC Kconfig option is not enabled → not used

Note

It is highly recommended to disable in the devicetree any peripherals that are not actually used by the firmware. You see them in the nRF Connect SDK samples for some DKs, because the board definition files enable them by default.

Here are the enabled peripherals for the Bluetooth: Peripheral UART sample:

PeripheralDevicetree nodeAddressKconfig driverPurpose
UART20uart200xc6000CONFIG_SERIAL, CONFIG_UART_NRFXConsole, shell, BLE NUS UART bridge
Radioradio0x8a000CONFIG_BT, CONFIG_BT_LL_SOFTDEVICEBluetooth radio (Softdevice Controller)* Note that this will trigger MPSL to own some peripherals in the RADIO domain.
SPI00spi000x4a000CONFIG_SPI, CONFIG_SPI_NRFXSPI master bus
MX25R64 Flashmx25r64(on SPI00)CONFIG_SPI_NOR, CONFIG_FLASHExternal NOR flash (8 MB)
GPIO0gpio00x10a000CONFIG_GPIO, CONFIG_GPIO_NRFXButtons (Button 3)
GPIO1gpio10xd8200CONFIG_GPIO, CONFIG_GPIO_NRFXLEDs, buttons, UART/SPI pins
GPIO2gpio20x50400CONFIG_GPIO, CONFIG_GPIO_NRFXLEDs, SPI CS
GPIOTE20gpiote200xda000CONFIG_NRFX_GPIOTEGPIO interrupts (port 1)
GPIOTE30gpiote300x10c000CONFIG_NRFX_GPIOTEGPIO interrupts (port 0)
Clockclock0x10e000CONFIG_CLOCK_CONTROL, CONFIG_CLOCK_CONTROL_NRFHFCLK/LFCLK management
GRTCgrtc0xe2000CONFIG_NRF_GRTC_TIMER, CONFIG_NRFX_GRTCSystem timer (kernel tick/scheduler)
CRACEN (RNG)rng—CONFIG_PSA_CRYPTO_DRIVER_CRACEN, CONFIG_CRACEN_HW_PRESENTHW crypto accelerator and RNG
Regulatorsregulators / vregmain0x120000(always-on system peripheral)Voltage regulation
GPREGRET1 / boot_mode0gpregret1 / boot_mode00x10e500(retention subsystem)Boot mode retention

System peripherals such as the DPPIC00/10/20/30 and PPIB00/01/10/11/20/21/22/30 are also enabled to support the peripherals above. Peripherals in the radio domain, such as the TIMER10, that are intended to support the RADIO are also enabled and owned by the MPSL layer as the Bluetooth LE stack is enabled (CONFIG_BT=y).

4. Use the Details View of the nRF Connect for VS Code, to see the hardware and software interrupt service routines setup.

You can also look at the Initialization levels to see the boot-up sequence of the device.

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      Change summary

      What's new in the latest version

      General updates

      General updates

      •Support for nRF54LS05 DK (Available through the early access sampling program)
      •Support for the nRF54LM20B with Axon NPU for Edge AI applications
      Bluetooth LE updates

      Bluetooth LE updates

      •Quality of Service module is now production-ready.
      •New experimental features for RF testing (Direct Test Mode) and low-latency packet handling (LE Flushable ACL).
      MCUboot & Partition Manager

      MCUboot & Partition Manager

      •Single-Slot DFU and RAM Load mode are both promoted to fully supported
      •Partition Manager is officially deprecated in favor of Zephyr's devicetree-based partitioning.