Nordic Semiconductor Power Profiler Kit II (PPK2)

Nordic Semiconductor Power Profiler Kit II (PPK2) is an affordable, flexible tool that provides hardware and software engineers with a simple method for measuring the average and dynamic power consumption in embedded solutions. The PPK2 can be connected to any Nordic Development Kit (DK) or custom board as a standalone unit, with no additional kits or debuggers.

An Ampere Meter (AMP) mode and Source Measure Unit (SMU) mode are supported. For the AMP mode, an external power supply must source V_CC levels between 0.8V and 5.0V to the Device Under Test (DUT). For the SMU mode, the PPK2 supplies V_CC levels between 0.8V and 5.0V, and the on-board regulator supplies up to 1A of current to external applications. It is possible to measure low sleep currents, the higher active currents, as well as short current peaks on all Nordic DKs, in addition to external hardware.

Power for the PPK2 comes from a standard 5.0V USB port. The DUT can either be powered by an external source or from the PPK2's source. The PPK2 eliminates the need for a bench power supply since it can provide an output adjustable voltage from 0.8V to 5.0V and a dynamic output current from 1µA to 1A.

The PPK2 also offers engineers eight digital inputs that can be used as a low-end logic analyzer. This makes it possible to instrument the code and make it easy to link the power consumption to blocks of code being executed.

Features

Measure instantaneous and average current on all Nordic DKs, in addition to custom boards
Variable power supply voltage ranging from 0.8V to 5.0V (software configurable)
Maximum 1A current measurement
Accurate measurement down to approximately 200nA
Resolution down to 0.2µA
100kS/s sampling speed
Automatic switching between five current measurement ranges ensuring optimal resolution