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_andreas
Senior
September 22, 2022
Question

If you use VREFBUF generated from the MCU, use buffer capacitors on the VREF+ pin. Always: it's a power supply. (That hint is in the hardware design guide, but it uses two sentences.)

  • September 22, 2022
  • 7 replies
  • 1795 views

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7 replies

waclawek.jan
Super User
September 24, 2022

From your other posts I see you use the 'U5xx, so I took a look at the 'U575 DS.

In Functional overview/VREFBUF chapter, there's a schematics with capacitor with no marking, so that may be the first clue.

In Electrical characteristics/VREFBUF chapter/table the capacitor is specified, and in fact in a rather narrow range, min.0.5uF typ.1uF max.1.5uF, with a footnote requiring an additional 100nF HF bypass. Then later in the table, the startup time is given as function of the actual cap used.

But I agree that this all is fineprint too easy to miss when designing a board, being overwhelmed by all the many detailed requirements.

Thanks for this post.

JW

[EDIT] I've had a look also at the 'L0/'L1 DS. These two families are relative outliers in several respects from other STM32, and in this particular respect, they have a buffered VREFINT (the buffered version called VREF_OUT), connectable to two GPIO pins, for whatever purpose. Granted, it has only 1uA current capability, as compared to VREFBUF's 4mA, and no direct connection to VREF+. Nonetheless, the DS for this VREF_OUT calls for *max* 50pF output load. If you'd had experience with this feature in the past, it's just natural then to tend to expect the similar with VREFBUF.

@Peter BENSCH​ , see here potential for one of those dozens of appnotes per peripheral I'm talking about all the time?

Peter BENSCH
ST Technical Moderator
September 26, 2022

Thank you @Community member​ for bringing this to our attention. There is certainly room for improvement in the appnotes.

@Imen DAHMEN​ 

@Amel NASRI​ 

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Mohamed Aymen HZAMI
ST Employee
September 27, 2022

Hello @Community member​,

Thank you for your feedback.

As I understand the request is to improve the following topics:

  • Update the figure VREFBUF block diagram in the U5 datasheet, add a reference to the capacitor value (referring to the VREFBUF characteristics table).
  • Change the VREF_OUT naming to VREFBUF_OUT in several STM32MCUs datasheets.

Could you please clarify this?

With Regards,

Mohamed Aymen

waclawek.jan
Super User
September 27, 2022

Hi Mohamed Aymen,

Yes, you're absolutely right, in both points.

Note, that there are STM32 families ('L0, 'L1) which do have a genuine VREF_OUT signal, so don't change those.

What exactly would you need to clarify further?

Thanks,

Jan

 @Mohamed Aymen HZAMI​ 

Mohamed Aymen HZAMI
ST Employee
September 30, 2022

Hi @Community member​,

What do you mean by:

>Note, that there are STM32 families ('L0, 'L1) which do have a genuine VREF_OUT signal, so don't change those.

Mohamed Aymen

waclawek.jan
Super User
September 30, 2022

Hi Mohamed Aymen,

In the 'L0 and 'L1 families, which are older, and don't have the VREFBUF module, the internal VREFINT module - which is present in all STM32 but in the vast majority its entirely internal and has no outside connection - but in 'L0 and 'L1 VREFINT can optionally be output to certain pins. This is marked as VREF_OUT and this should not be changed.

The VREFBUF module is relatively new, first appeared in the 'L4 family.

It's output is connected directly to VREF+ pin, but if it needs to be indicated in the datasheet, it ought to be called VREFBUF_OUT and not VREF_OUT. So VREF_OUT is incorrect only in the STM32 models which are newer than 'L4 and do have VREFBUF (as in 'G071:

https://community.st.com/s/question/0D53W00001pJhC3SAK/st-in-models-with-vrefbuf-dont-call-its-output-vrefout

 )

JW

@Mohamed Aymen HZAMI​ 

Mohamed Aymen HZAMI
ST Employee
October 3, 2022

Hello @Community member​,

Thanks for the clarification.

Mohamed Aymen