25.6.8.5.2 Active Layer Protection

The RTC provides a mean of detecting broken traces on the PCB, also known as Active layer Protection. In this mode, a generated internal RTC signal can be directly routed over critical components on the board using the RTC_OUT output pin to one RTC INn input pin. A tamper condition is detected if there is a mismatch on the generated RTC signal.

The Active Layer Protection mode and the generation of the RTC signal is enabled by setting the RTCOUT bit in the Control B register (CTRLB.RTCOUT).

Note: The Active Layer Protection works with one output pin (RTC_OUT) and multiple input pin INn. This is achieved by clearing the Separate Tamper Output bit CTRLB.SEPTO.
Enabling active layer protection requires the following steps:
  • Enable the RTC prescaler output by writing a ‘1’ to the RTC Out bit in the Control B register (CTRLB.RTCOUT). The I/O pins must also be configured to correctly route the signal to the external pins.
  • Select the frequency of the output signal by configuring the RTC Active Layer Frequency field in the Control B register (CTRLB.ACTF).
    CLK_RTC_OUT  = CLK_RTC 2 CTRLB.ACTF + 1
  • Enable the tamper input n (INn) in Active Layer mode by writing ‘3’ to the corresponding Input Action field in the Tamper Control register (TAMPCTRL.INnACT). When active layer protection is enabled and INn and OUTn pin are used, the value of INn is sampled on the falling edge of CLK_RTC and compared to the expected value of OUTn. Therefore up to one half of a CLK_RTC period is available for propagation delay through the trace.
  • Enable Active Layer Protection by setting CTRLB.RTCOUT bit.