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Espressif Systems today announced the ESP32-H21, an enhanced low-power wireless SoC designed for Thread, Matter, ZigBee, and Bluetooth Low Energy based devices. As an incremental update to the ESP32-H2 platform, ESP32-H21 integrates an on-chip DC-DC converter to further reduce active current consumption, extending battery life in power-sensitive IoT products. It is well suited for applications such as smart-home and building automation sensors, Bluetooth mesh nodes and lighting/control devices, Matter-enabled endpoints, occupancy and environmental sensors, asset monitoring devices, and other always-connected, battery-powered products.
ESP32-H21 integrates IEEE 802.15.4 and Bluetooth Low Energy, making it well suited for low-power mesh networking applications. With the integrated DC-DC, ESP32-H21 the RX active current is approximately 8.2 mA under typical operating conditions. In addition, ESP32-H21 supports multiple low-power operating modes, achieving current consumption as low as 9 µA in light sleep and 5 µA in deep sleep modes. These power characteristics enable long battery life in duty-cycled and always-connected devices.
ESP32-H21 also supports up to 20 dBm transmit power, enabling improved wireless range and link robustness for Thread and Bluetooth LE networks, particularly in dense or interference-prone environments.
Built around a 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller, running up to 96 MHz, ESP32-H21 provides efficient protocol handling and a rich set of peripherals for flexible system integration. The SoC integrates on-chip memory, including 320 KB SRAM and 128 KB ROM, and supports external flash memory for flexible application design.
A rich set of peripherals and up to 19 GPIOs enable compact and cost-effective system integration. These include commonly used interfaces such as UART, SPI, I²C, I²S, PWM, ADC, timers, and DMA, allowing ESP32-H21 to connect to a wide range of sensors, actuators, and user-interface components while maintaining low power consumption.
It is fully supported by Espressif’s ESP-IDF software platform, allowing developers existing tools, software components and workflows to accelerate development and reduce time-to-market.
ESP32-H21 is compatible with ESP-Matter, enabling the development of battery-powered Matter devices such as sensors, actuators, and control nodes using Thread connectivity. The protocol stack support development of ZigBee based devices with productizable examples.
Meanwhile, on the Bluetooth LE side, the ESP32-H21 supports common use cases such as peripheral connections, advertising, and low-power data exchange, and can also be used to build ESP-BLE-MESH networking systems well suited for multi-node deployments in lighting control, sensor networks, building automation, and industrial environments.
If you are interested in the ESP32-H21 series products, please contact Espressif’s customer support team.
About Espressif Systems
Espressif Systems (espressif.com) is a global semiconductor company specializing in wireless connectivity solutions for AIoT applications. With a comprehensive portfolio spanning Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Thread, and Matter technologies, Espressif provides SoCs, software, and services that enable secure, scalable, and intelligent connected products worldwide.
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