ESP32-S3 Minimal PCB

[EspNewb1]

Hi all, I’m trying to develop my skills with hardware engineering. Please bear with me this will be my first design. I’m a software engineer for who even remembers how many years and I’m trying to dive into hardware as well.

So after researching a bit, I’ve decided to go with a ESP32-S3FN8. Which already has some internal Flash so I don’t have to worry about that part on my PCB.

What are the bare bones requirements for my PCB besides 3.3v and GND? Pretty sure I need a 40MHz crystal but I’m not sure which specs are required.

I plan on using headers to program over UART so I don’t need a USB circuit either.

My goal here is to have the minimal amount of SMD required to run the ESP32.

[ESP_Sprite]

Check the hardware design guidelines. I'd strongly recommend adding USB as well, btw, the minimum configuration only needs GPIO19, GPIO20 and ground connected to a micro-USB connector, and this gives you USB-serial-JTAG and USB-OTG device functionality.

[EspNewb1]

So a crystal isn’t required?

[ESP_Sprite]

To quote the hardware design guidelines: "External Crystal Clock Source (Compulsory)"

[EspNewb1]

Is it for the radio functionality? I want to run it without WiFi/bluetooth for now.

[ESP_Sprite]

No, the ESP32 CPU core also needs it to function.