topic Re: Power consumption in sleep mode is higher than expected for the MCXA153 in MCX Microcontrollers

Power consumption in sleep mode is higher than expected for the MCXA153

petrolivka — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 18:48:22 GMT

Hello,

I read AN14558 (Low Power Implementation on MCX A153 MCU Series) and used the program included in this application note. I obtained almost identical results, which match those shown in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj9QANRU3rA.

In sleep mode with slow wake-up (options B and 3 in the terminal), the current is 0.85 mA.

In the MCXAP64M96FS3 datasheet, the table 14 in section 3.2.6.1 states that IDD_SLEEP_MD should be 0.34 mA. That is less than half of the value specified in AN14558.

What else needs to be changed in the program to get the current closer to 0.34 mA?

I’ve studied the application note and the source code; in my opinion, everything is set for minimum current consumption.

Thank you, Petr

Re: Power consumption in sleep mode is higher than expected for the MCXA153

Alice_Yang — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 10:59:36 GMT

Hi @petrolivka

Could you please let me know whether you are using your own board or an NXP demo board?
If you are using a demo board, please provide a photo showing the hardware connections during the measurement, as well as the code that is running on the board.

Thank you.

Alice

Re: Power consumption in sleep mode is higher than expected for the MCXA153

petrolivka — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 13:58:40 GMT

Hello,

I primarily measured the FRDM-MCXA153, but I also have two other custom boards with the MCXA153 and MCXA142. The current is nearly identical in all three cases.
I’m attaching the measurements taken with MCU-Link Pro and with a multimeter.

Petr

Re: Power consumption in sleep mode is higher than expected for the MCXA153

Alice_Yang — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 10:52:52 GMT

Hi @petrolivka

I’m sorry for the late reply.
Due to an issue with the community system, I did not receive any notification, and I just saw your response.
I will perform the measurements on my side and get back to you as soon as possible.
Thank you for your patience.

Alice

Re: Power consumption in sleep mode is higher than expected for the MCXA153

Alice_Yang — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 10:16:28 GMT

Hello @petrolivka

This power consumption code is based on the MCXA156 and can achieve results the same with the values shown in the datasheet. Please refer to the following link for details:
https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/application-note-software/AN14447SW.zip

Alice

Re: Power consumption in sleep mode is higher than expected for the MCXA153

petrolivka — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 08:09:24 GMT

Hi.

Thank you for the link.
I see that this is the same example as https://github.com/nxp-appcodehub/an-low-power-implementation-mcxa156, which I tested earlier, but it crashed with a HardFault.
So I debugged it and removed the problematic parts of the code for the MCXA156 to make the program compatible with the MCXA153.
The result is a current of 0.40–0.41 mA, which is very close to the figure in the PDF, where the current is listed as 0.34 mA. And that’s acceptable.

From my perspective, however, there is a bit of an issue with both programs for the AN1447 and AN14558. They are not fully compatible with the SDK and MCUXpresso. The clock_config.* files contain a lot of changes and cannot be used with Clock ConfigTools. The fsl_cmc.c file has also been modified.

So using the examples isn’t just a simple kids’ game like: find ten differences

Petr