5.3 Measurements Using the EnergyTrace™ Tool

For test environments that do not allow easy access to current consumption measurement bench equipment such as a DC Power Analyzer, TI has provided EnergyTrace technology for SimpleLink CC13x2/CC26x2 microcontrollers. It is a stand-alone energy-based code analysis tool that measures and displays the application’s energy profile and helps to optimize it for ultra-low-power consumption. Further instructions for setup and use are covered in the EnergyTrace User Guide section of the Z-Stack User's Guide^[6]. Figure 14 through Figure 16 were captured using the same ZED switch project evaluated in Section 5.1 polling once per second for ten seconds without sending any ZCL data packets.

Figure 14. ZED EnergyTrace Measurement Profile

Figure 15. ZED EnergyTrace Current Measurement

Figure 16. ZED EnergyTrace Energy Measurement

Note that although a powerful tool for quick evaluation of the system's low-power state, EnergyTrace measurements are not as accurate compared to bench equipment. It is not recommended as a direct alternative for assessing the expected lifetime of a product.