User's Manual

3.4 Power Consumption 3 FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION
3.4 Power Consumption
With the advanced power management technology, ESP32 can switch between different power modes as fol-
lows:
• Power mode
– Active mode: chip radio is powered on. The chip can receive, transmit, or listen.
– Modem-sleep mode: the CPU is operational and the clock is configurable. Wi-Fi / Bluetooth baseband
and radio are disabled.
– Light-sleep mode: the CPU is paused. The RTC and ULP-coprocessor are running. Any wake-up
events (MAC, host, RTC timer, or external interrupts) will wake up the chip.
– Deep-sleep mode: Only RTC is powered on. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection data are stored in RTC
memory. The ULP-coprocessor can work.
– Hibernation mode: The internal 8MHz oscillator and ULP-coprocessor are disabled. The RTC recovery
memory are power-down. Only one RTC timer on the slow clock and some RTC GPIOs are active. The
RTC timer or the RTC GPIOs can wake up the chip from the Hibernation mode.
• Sleep Pattern
– Association sleep pattern: The power mode switches between the active mode and Modem-sleep/Light-
sleep mode during this sleep pattern. The CPU, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and radio wake up at pre-determined
intervals to keep Wi-Fi / BT connections alive.
– ULP sensor-monitored pattern: The main CPU is in the Deep-sleep mode. The ULP co-processor does
sensor measurements and wakes up the main system, based on the measured data from sensors.
The power consumption varies with different power modes/sleep patterns and work status of functional modules
(see Table 5).
Table 5: Power Consumption by Power Modes
Power mode Comment Power consumption
Active mode (RF working)
Wi-Fi Tx packet 13 dBm ~ 21 dBm 160 ~ 260 mA
Wi-Fi / BT Tx packet 0 dBm 120 mA
Wi-Fi / BT Rx and listening 80 ~ 90 mA
Association sleep pattern (by Light-
sleep)
0.9 mA@DTIM3, 1.2 mA@DTIM1
Modem-sleep mode The CPU is powered on.
Max speed: 20 mA
Normal: 5 ~ 10 mA
Slow speed: 3 mA
Light-sleep mode - 0.8 mA
Deep-sleep mode
The ULP-coprocessor is powered on. 0.5 mA
ULP sensor-monitored pattern 25 µA @1% duty
RTC timer + RTC memories 20 µA
Hibernation mode RTC timer only 2.5 µA
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