Measuring current

The current drawn by the nRF52840 System on Chip (SoC) can be monitored on the nRF21540 DK.

Current can be measured using various test instruments. Some examples of test equipment are the following:

• Power analyzer
• Oscilloscope
• Ampere meter
• Power Profiler Kit

Power analyzer and Power Profiler Kit measurements are not described in this document. For more information on Power Profiler Kit, see Power Profiler Kit User Guide.

For measuring instructions, see Using an oscilloscope for current profile measurement and Using an ampere meter for current measurement.

The nRF52840 SoC has two possible power supplies: VDD (1.7–3.6 V) and VDDH (2.5–5.5 V). The nRF21540 DK is prepared for measuring current on both domains. Only the VDD domain current measurement is described here, but the approach is the same with the VDDH supply. See the following table for the corresponding components.

For more information on current measurement, see the Current measurement guide tutorial.