Since the time spent in active mode can be insignificant compared to the time spent in power save mode, power save mode is often the most important power consumption characteristic of an MCU. The latest 32 kHz crystal oscillator design utilized in the AVR XMEGA MCUs reduces the current consumption in power save mode to a level comparable to power down mode.
With a supply voltage of 1.6V, the AVR picoPower technology achieves the industry’s lowest power save current consumption of 650 nA with the 32 kHz oscillator running and a sleeping BOD.