Today I was seeing the datasheet of STM32F103 MCUs and I came across with an interesting thing. assume I have an STM32F103RET6. it's a 64pin MCU of STM32 series. the pinout is this:
It has 4 Vss
and or Vdd
and 51 GPIO
pins (the rest of pins are ain't important for my question). look at Absolute maximum ratings
The total current that all Vss
or Vdd
can source or sink is 4*150=600mA. as I said we have 51 GPIO pins. if we would use them as source or sink for current then they would draw 51*(+-25)= (+-1275). the point is that the total current that all Vss
or Vdd
can handle is less than 600mA while the total current for GPIOs is 1275mA. Why?
also that's not only belong to STM32 family. I have checked out AVR family. for example ATmega8a. DIP package:
It has one Vcc
and one GND
while there are 22 GPIO
s. each Vcc
or GND
(ATmega8a for DIP package just has one Vcc
and GND
) just can handle 300mA while there are 22 GPIO
and the total current is 22*40=880mA. also for MLF
or TQFP
packages, it's better than DIP
because they have a couple GND
and Vcc
.