21.6.3 Clock Failure Detection Operation

The Clock Failure Detector (CFD) allows the user to monitor the external clock or crystal oscillator signal provided by the external oscillator (XOSC32K). The CFD detects failing operation of the XOSC32K clock with reduced latency, and supports switching to a safe clock source in case of clock failure. The user can also switch from the safe clock back to XOSC32K in case of recovery. The safe clock is derived from the OSCULP32K oscillator with a configurable prescaler. This allows configuring the safe clock in order to fulfill the operative conditions of the microcontroller.

In sleep modes, CFD operation is automatically disabled when the external oscillator is not requested to run by a peripheral. See the Sleep Behavior table above when this is the case.

The user interface registers allow to enable, disable, and configure the CFD. The Status register provides status flags on failure and clock switch conditions. The CFD can optionally trigger an interrupt or an event when a failure is detected.

Clock Failure Detection

The CFD is reset only at power-on (POR). The CFD does not monitor the XOSC32K clock when the oscillator is disabled (XOSC32K.ENABLE=0).

Before starting CFD operation, the user must start and enable the safe clock source (OSCULP32K oscillator).

CFD operation is started by writing a '1' to the CFD Enable bit in the External Oscillator Control register (CFDCTRL.CFDEN). After starting or restarting the XOSC32K, the CFD does not detect failure until the start-up time has elapsed. The start-up time is configured by the Oscillator Start-Up Time in the External Multipurpose Crystal Oscillator Control register (XOSC32K.STARTUP). Once the XOSC32K Start-Up Time is elapsed, the XOSC32K clock is constantly monitored.

During a period of 4 safe clocks (monitor period), the CFD watches for a clock activity from the XOSC32K. There must be at least one rising and one falling XOSC32K clock edge during 4 safe clock periods to meet non-failure conditions. If no or insufficient activity is detected, the failure status is asserted: The Clock Failure Detector status bit in the Status register (STATUS.CLKFAIL) and the Clock Failure Detector interrupt flag bit in the Interrupt Flag register (INTFLAG.CLKFAIL) are set. If the CLKFAIL bit in the Interrupt Enable Set register (INTENSET.CLKFAIL) is set, an interrupt is generated as well. If the Event Output enable bit in the Event Control register (EVCTRL.CFDEO) is set, an output event is generated, too.

After a clock failure was issued the monitoring of the XOSC32K clock is continued, and the Clock Failure Detector status bit in the Status register (STATUS.CLKFAIL) reflects the current XOSC32K activity.

Clock Switch

When a clock failure is detected, the XOSC32K clock is replaced by the safe clock in order to maintain an active clock during the XOSC32K clock failure. The safe clock source is the OSCULP32K oscillator clock. Both 32.768 kHz and 1.024 kHz outputs of the XOSC32K are replaced by the respective OSCULP32K 32.768 kHz and 1.024 kHz outputs. The safe clock source can be scaled down by a configurable prescaler to ensure that the safe clock frequency does not exceed the operating conditions selected by the application. When the XOSC32K clock is switched to the safe clock, the Clock Switch bit in the Status register (STATUS.CLKSW) is set.

When the CFD has switched to the safe clock, the XOSC32K is not disabled. If desired, the application must take the necessary actions to disable the oscillator. The application must also take the necessary actions to configure the system clocks to continue normal operations. In the case the application can recover the XOSC32K, the application can switch back to the XOSC32K clock by writing a '1' to Switch Back Enable bit in the Clock Failure Control register (CFDCTRL.SWBACK). Once the XOSC32K clock is switched back, the Switch Back bit (CFDCTRL.SWBACK) is cleared by hardware.

Prescaler

The CFD has an internal configurable prescaler to generate the safe clock from the OSCULP32K oscillator. The prescaler size allows to scale down the OSCULP32K oscillator so the safe clock frequency is not higher than the XOSC32K clock frequency monitored by the CFD. The maximum division factor is 2.

The prescaler is applied on both outputs (32.768 kHz and 1.024 kHz) of the safe clock.

Example

For an external crystal oscillator at 32.768 kHz and the OSCULP32K frequency is 32.768 kHz, the XOSC32K.CFDPRESC should be set to 0 for a safe clock of equal frequency.

Event

If the Event Output Enable bit in the Event Control register (EVCTRL.CFDEO) is set, the CFD clock failure will be output on the Event Output. When the CFD is switched to the safe clock, the CFD clock failure will not be output on the Event Output.

Sleep Mode

The CFD is halted depending on configuration of the XOSC32K and the peripheral clock request. For further details, refer to the Sleep Behavior table above. The CFD interrupt can be used to wake up the device from sleep modes.