Deep Sleep Current too high (1-4 mA), even without LDO

[zar_roc]

I would like to seek your help:

I designed a custom PCB to run the ESP32 on battery for long time.Problem: The deep sleep current is way to high.

I reduced it to the following setup:


When using the deepsleep mode by either flashing my own software which calls:

Code: Select all

esp_sleep_enable_timer_wakeup(MAIN_CFG_TIME_TO_SLEEP * uS_TO_S_FACTOR);
esp_deep_sleep_start(); 

or by flashing the example for timed wakeup which is supplied by the Arduino IDE, the chip enters deep sleep and uses about 1-3mA. After 5 seconds of deep sleep it wakes up and uses its normal 40mA. After going to sleep again and again it uses more mA while deepsleeping.

I have no clue why this is happening. I tried several of my PCBs, multiple ESP32, I removed the LDO and tried to power by bench power supply and by battery. The bench supply shows roughly the same amount of current being drawed.

Video Link of the problem:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dyajoxANxhyjDkhK8

What did I miss? What should I try to find a solution?
With this link you can see the PCB and schematics of 1) the complete project and 2) the reduced setup for testing purposes
https://easyeda.com/editor#id=|2227e28c ... 087fdace89

[Palonso]

Hi,

Did you solve this?

I have a similar problem, the WROVER module only with a DCDC regulator and it uses 16mA in deep sleep and I don't know where is going all that current.

[Scott.Bonomi]

I have not taken a close enough look at this device to be sure but I expect you are feeding the internal GPIO resisters among other things. I would try making all the GPIOs you are not using inputs without any pull-up/down features enabled. I know that I was able to reduce my average current on a ARM7tdmi significantly that way

[rosmianto]

Try to remove those decoupling capacitors temporarily and see if it's improved your current consumption, sometimes faulty caps have unacceptable current leakage for low power environment. I built a minimal setup for ESP32 and I can easily achieve sub 10uA (around 2.5uA to be precise).