topic Re: FRDM-MCXA153 Y1 Crystal in MCX Microcontrollers

FRDM-MCXA153 Y1 Crystal

joseph_lindula — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 18:24:07 GMT

Hello, I'm using the FRDM-MCXA153 Eval Kit and I would like to know the purpose of the Y1 Crystal. I see that it is an 8Mhz crystal but it is not populated. Do I need to add that part on the board?

Thank you

Re: FRDM-MCXA153 Y1 Crystal

db16122 — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 13:39:18 GMT

AN14798 System Oscillator Usage for MCX A series

Frequency is the main parameter for selecting the crystal. For MCX A series MCU, 8 MHz~50 MHz are supported

Re: FRDM-MCXA153 Y1 Crystal

joseph_lindula — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 18:09:49 GMT

What's the purpose of the crystal?

Re: FRDM-MCXA153 Y1 Crystal

Alice_Yang — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 02:41:27 GMT

Hi @joseph_lindula

Y1 is the reserved footprint for the external 8 MHz crystal on the MCX A153. It is not populated by default on the FRDM-MCXA153 production board. Unless you specifically need to enable an external crystal clock source, there is no need to install it.

Thank you.

Alice