16.6.3 32kHz External Crystal Oscillator (XOSC32K) Operation

The XOSC32K can operate in two different modes:

• External clock, with an external clock signal connected to XIN32
• Crystal oscillator, with an external 32.768kHz crystal connected between XIN32 and XOUT32

The XOSC32K can be used as a source for generic clock generators, as described in the GCLK – Generic Clock Controller.

At power-on reset (POR) the XOSC32K is disabled, and the XIN32/XOUT32 pins can be used as General Purpose I/O (GPIO) pins or by other peripherals in the system. When XOSC32K is enabled, the operating mode determines the GPIO usage. When in crystal oscillator mode, XIN32 and XOUT32 are controlled by the SYSCTRL, and GPIO functions are overridden on both pins. When in external clock mode, only the XIN32 pin will be overridden and controlled by the SYSCTRL, while the XOUT32 pin can still be used as a GPIO pin.

The external clock or crystal oscillator is enabled by writing a one to the Enable bit (XOSC32K.ENABLE) in the 32kHz External Crystal Oscillator Control register. To enable the XOSC32K as a crystal oscillator, a one must be written to the XTAL Enable bit (XOSC32K.XTALEN). If XOSC32K.XTALEN is zero, external clock input will be enabled.

The oscillator is disabled by writing a zero to the Enable bit (XOSC32K.ENABLE) in the 32kHz External Crystal Oscillator Control register while keeping the other bits unchanged. Writing to the XOSC32K.ENABLE bit while writing to other bits may result in unpredictable behavior. The oscillator remains enabled in all sleep modes if it has been enabled beforehand. The start-up time of the 32kHz External Crystal Oscillator is selected by writing to the Oscillator Start-Up Time bit group (XOSC32K.STARTUP) in the in the 32kHz External Crystal Oscillator Control register. The SYSCTRL masks the oscillator output during the start-up time to ensure that no unstable clock propagates to the digital logic. The 32kHz External Crystal Oscillator Ready bit (PCLKSR.XOSC32KRDY) in the Power and Clock Status register is set when the user-selected startup time is over. An interrupt is generated on a zero-to-one transition of PCLKSR.XOSC32KRDY if the 32kHz External Crystal Oscillator Ready bit (INTENSET.XOSC32KRDY) in the Interrupt Enable Set Register is set.

As a crystal oscillator usually requires a very long start-up time (up to one second), the 32kHz External Crystal Oscillator will keep running across resets, except for power-on reset (POR).

XOSC32K can provide two clock outputs when connected to a crystal. The XOSC32K has a 32.768kHz output enabled by writing a one to the 32kHz External Crystal Oscillator 32kHz Output Enable bit (XOSC32K.EN32K) in the 32kHz External Crystal Oscillator Control register. XOSC32K.EN32K is only usable when XIN32 is connected to a crystal, and not when an external digital clock is applied on XIN32.