MEMS microphones push performance levels in consumer products
1 min read
Looking to service a market predicted to reach 4billion units a year by 2016, Bosch subsidiary Akustica has added four high performance analogue microphones to its high definition voice product line. The launch includes the AKU346, said to be the smallest MEMS microphone to achieve an SNR of 64dB.
The devices have been developed to meet the size and performance requirements of companies designing leading edge consumer products. These include small footprint, high SNR, tight sensitivity matching and super wideband frequency response.
Chief executive Dr Horst Muenzel said: "Feedback from customers is they are using more than one microphone per product. Customers like these microphones because better sensitivity means better products."
Measuring 2 x 3 x 0.93mm, the bottom port AKU346 has a guaranteed sensitivity of ±1dB between microphones, important where more than one microphone is used per device for functions such as noise cancellation and speech.
Meanwhile the AKU143, AKU345 and AKU344 are top and bottom port microphones with an SNR of 65dB. Footprint and pin compatible with previous generations of Akustica HD voice microphones, the devices provide a straightforward path for upgrading performance of current designs.
Akustica is targeting the microphones at 'challenging' applications, including speech recognition in noisy environments and at distances of up to 1m. In these situations, says the company, tests have shown that a 1dB increase in SNR can bring a 5% increase in accuracy rates. This, it adds, can make the difference between success and failure for a speech recognition application.
All four microphones support ultrasonic applications, such as gesture recognition, gaming, pens and location detection.
