STM32F373VCT6 controller damage or 3.3V to GND short

[Hanamant]

Hi team.

We have been using the STM32F373VCT6 microcontroller across three different projects for the past three years. However, during testing and debugging time we’ve encountered a recurring issue where the controller is getting short between the 3.3V supply and ground suddenly. This problem has occurred multiple times and is affecting our development process. We kindly request your support in identifying the root cause of this problem.

[Andrew Neil]

You're going to need to give a lot more detail for people to be able to help you with that!

Please see: How to write your question to maximize your chances to find a solution

[Ozone]

And tell us what you had connected to those boards, especially peripherals with supply voltages of 5V and higher, and those related to inductive loads (like motors or voltage converters).

I have STM32 boards that or more than 10 years old, used frequently, and which still work fine.

[Hanamant]

The supply voltage for pheripheral,ADC is 3.3V max 

[mƎALLEm]

Hello,

It could be an issue in your power supply design, spikes in power supply exceeding the VDD max, and it could be as said by @Ozone due to inductive loads, or even more due to an electrostatic discharge (ESD). Are you sure you are handling your boards carefully against ESD, using antistatic tools like: antistatic  wirst strap / antistatic carpet etc ..?

[Ozone]

With "peripherals", I meant every external device you connected to the board - not MCU peripherals.

Devices which handle large inductive loads can create surges / EMI interferences several times greater than their own supply voltage, that can travel via any connection (including GND).

[Andrew Neil]

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@Hanamant wrote:

This problem has occurred multiple times

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The STM32 won't be damaged so long as you keep within the specified limits stated in the datasheet.

This includes storage, handling and assembly - as well as operation.

If you're getting multiple failures, then there must be something(s) wrong with your design and/or your storage/handling/assembly procedures which allow the STM32 to experience stresses beyond the stated limits.

We know absolutely nothing at all about your design, or the environment it operates in, or your storage/handling/assembly procedures - so we can only guess at what might be going wrong.

If you want better help, you're going to have to supply more details!

If you can't share details publicly, then raise a private support ticket: https://ols.st.com/s/

[Hanamant]

ST moderator: Threads merged. In next time please don't duplicate threads. Please keep the discussion in one thread for the same question. Thank you for your understanding.

We have been using the STM32F373VCT6 microcontroller across three different projects for the past three years. However, during testing and debugging time we’ve encountered a recurring issue where the controller is getting short between the 3.3V supply and ground suddenly. This problem has occurred multiple times and is affecting our development process. We kindly request your support in identifying the root cause of this problem.

[Ozone]

I vaguely remember an almost identical thread here a few days ago.

> We kindly request your support in identifying the root cause of this problem.

The cause are the electronics you connected to the STM32 board.

I bet this includes motor drivers and/or voltage converters, both containing relatively large coils and operating on voltages above 3.3V.
It does not matter that the direct connections between those boards and the MCU board are 3.3V or below.

[LCE]

Or some other EMI / ESD problem?

What about all the connectors and IOs?
I just found one comment for ESD protection "only for production".

Honestly, our production people handle the electronics much better safer than we do in development... :D