Modern electronics projects are getting more and more complex, and keeping power consumption under control is becoming increasingly important. Whether it’s a battery-powered IoT device or an industrial controller running around the clock, how efficiently a system uses energy has a direct impact on battery life, sustainability, and performance. Well-thought-out power management can make a big difference and can help teams reduce energy usage and build more reliable products.
What is Power Optimisation in Electronics?
Power optimisation refers to designing electronic systems to minimise energy consumption without compromising performance. In practice, this involves a combination of low-power design, software strategies, and careful hardware selection. The goal is to create energy-efficient electronics that perform reliably while consuming minimal energy – a priority for both battery-powered devices and environmentally conscious designs.
Effective power optimisation requires considering all aspects of a system: processors, peripherals, communication interfaces, and software. By addressing energy use, engineers can extend battery life, reduce heat generation, and support sustainable product development.
Why Power Optimisation is Important
Power consumption affects the usability and sustainability of devices:
- Idle energy drain: Many devices spend most of their life in idle or standby mode. Even with good power management, this can account for the majority of energy usage.
- User experience: Longer battery life means less frequent charging, making devices more convenient for consumers.
- Sustainability: Energy-efficient designs reduce carbon footprints and comply with increasingly strict regulatory standards.
- Cost efficiency: Lower energy consumption can reduce operating costs in large-scale deployments or remote installations.
- Development time: Considering power states and planning on how to implement them can be a considerable development hurdle, delaying the product coming to market.
By prioritising power optimisation, engineers can create devices that are both high-performing and environmentally responsible.
Key Power Optimisation Techniques
1. Use Advanced Power Modes
Modern processors and microcontrollers support multiple sleep and deep sleep modes. Strategically using these modes allows devices to consume minimal power when idle while maintaining quick wake-up capabilities. Choosing the right balance between energy savings and responsiveness is key.
2. Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS)
DVFS adjusts the processor’s voltage and clock frequency in real-time based on workload. This technique reduces energy consumption during low-demand periods without impacting performance, making it a staple in low power design.
3. Power Gating and Clock Gating
By shutting down unused circuits or peripherals, engineers can reduce both static and dynamic power consumption. Power and clock gating are effective methods for minimising waste in complex electronic systems.
4. Efficient Power Distribution and Regulators
Selecting the right combination of low-dropout regulators (LDOs), switching regulators, and power management ICs (PMICs) ensures that power flows efficiently through a system. Proper voltage regulation prevents energy loss and supports overall device stability.
5. Software-Centric Optimisations
Energy efficiency isn’t just hardware-related. Writing efficient firmware, such as event-driven logic and minimal polling loops, helps ensure the system spends as much time as possible in low-power states. Scheduling tasks intelligently can also contribute significantly to energy-efficient electronics.
6. Peripheral and Communication Optimisation
Wireless communication often consumes significant power. Choosing low-power protocols like BLE, batching transmissions, or compressing data can dramatically reduce energy usage, particularly in battery-powered or remote devices.
7. Early and Continuous Power Measurement
Tracking energy consumption throughout the design process allows engineers to identify inefficiencies early. Using profiling tools and real-time measurement ensures that power optimisation remains an integral part of development.
Zephyr Power Management
The Zephyr RTOS provides a comprehensive framework for power management, offering system-wide and device-specific power states. Its APIs allow developers to implement sleep modes, manage peripherals efficiently, and schedule tasks to optimise energy use. By integrating Zephyr into modern electronic designs, teams can achieve low-power operation without compromising functionality. Zephyr helpfully adds support for defining I/O states when low power modes are activated, and predicts how long it can stay in low power based on user settings. These two features significantly lower the effort to implement low power in a Zephyr project.
(Project example)For example, in December 2025, the Company implemented pm on a client PCB using NXP’s RW610 WiFi SoC. NXP’s support in Zephyr is good. Adding pm support was a matter of a day of effort, followed up with a further few days of optimisation and testing. We were able to achieve the advertised power levels in the SoC trivially, compared to the effort this typically takes in traditional systems For the sake of comparison, in 2016 the effort to put an STM32F1 into its lowest power state took a matter of weeks of effort.
Challenges in Power Optimisation
While power optimisation offers clear benefits, it introduces complexity:
- Balancing responsiveness with energy savings can be tricky.
- Hardware and software must be closely coordinated to manage multiple power states.
- Testing and verification are critical to ensure low-power techniques don’t negatively impact performance or reliability.
Despite these challenges, a thoughtful approach to power management can yield devices that are high-performing and energy-efficient.
Conclusion
Power optimisation is a vital part of modern electronics design. By leveraging advanced hardware features, implementing efficient software strategies, and using frameworks like Zephyr, engineers can create low-power, energy-efficient electronics that meet user expectations and regulatory requirements.
At Bermondsey Electronics, we combine deep technical expertise with practical experience to help clients achieve optimal energy efficiency in their projects. Contact our team to discuss how we can help make your next electronics project both powerful and power-conscious.
