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STM32H503CBT6 NRST and VCAP Behavior – Severe Stability Issue

kadir1
Visitor

Hello,

I’m using the STM32H503CBT6 microcontroller in my project. At this stage, the firmware simply toggles a single LED. I’m using STM32CubeMX (code configurator) and compiling with STM32CubeIDE. The system is configured to run at 250 MHz using a 16 MHz HSE with the PLL, according to the recommendations in the documentation.

Hardware Configuration:

NRST pin is pulled up to 3.3V with a 4.7k resistor and has a 100nF capacitor to GND.

BOOT0 is pulled down to GND with a 10k resistor.

Both VCAP pins have 2.2µF ceramic capacitors.

All unused GPIOs are left in floating mode via CubeMX configuration.

VDD is supplied with a stable 3.3V.

Observed Issues:

The system enters a fault state randomly, between 10 seconds and 10 minutes after power-up.

In the fault state:

VDD remains at 3.3V.

NRST pin oscillates between ~0.5V and ~0.9V.

VCAP voltage drops to around 1V (where it should normally be ~1.36V).

Before entering the fault state, NRST sometimes fluctuates between 3.3V and 2V for a short while.

After the fault, the microcontroller becomes permanently non-functional. It starts drawing excessive current and does not recover.

So far, we’ve damaged around 20 STM32H503CBT6 chips across different PCBs.

Power has been supplied from different sources:

USB port of a computer,

Regulated lab power supply,

3.3V battery source.
The same issue occurs with all power setups.

Best regards.

3 REPLIES 3
TDK
Super User

This indicates a hardware issue. Perhaps show the full schematic. Ensure pins are not being overvoltaged.

> So far, we’ve damaged around 20 STM32H503CBT6 chips across different PCBs.

Probably a critical flaw in the design then, yes?

 

There are no issues with your BOOT0/NRST/VCAP setups.

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şema.png

 Theoretically, there should be no problem with the scheme.

How does one net have two different names? +3V3 and +3V3_MCU are connected. What are E3 and Z3 here?

Hard to debug through a keyhole. No obvious issues with what you posted but there's certainly an issue somewhere. If you don't want to post the schematic, all I can offer are general tips.

Getting started with STM32H5 MCU hardware development - Application note

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