Micromachined microphones with in-plane and out-of-plane directivity

具有面内和面外方向性的微机械麦克风

• 批准号: 8981015
• 负责人: Caesar Theodore Garcia
• 金额: $ 50.9万
• 依托单位: SILICON AUDIO, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-12-01 至 2017-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8981015
• 关键词: Acoustics; Address; Algorithms; American; Artificial Intelligence; Client satisfaction; Communities; Devices; Environment; Hearing; Hearing Aids; Industry; Laboratories; Noise; Optics; Pain Threshold; Patients; Persons; Research; Scanning; Self-Help Devices; Signal Transduction; Silicon; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Techniques; Technology; Time; Work; commercialization; design; empowered; hearing impairment; pressure; prototype; sensor; signal processing; sound; tool

Project Summary We aim to introduce to the hearing-assistive device industry directional microphones with high signal-to-noise ratio, and the first commercialized microphone that combines all three axes of acoustic pressure gradient onto a single silicon chip. We expect the technology to empower the signal-processing community with a new tool which, when used in conjunction with a conventional omnidirectional microphone, will facilitate new features like ultra-sharp directionality adaptable in real-time by the user and/or artificial intelligence algorithms which scan for desired inputs while filtering out unwanted noise. Directional sensing and the ability to filter out undesirable background acoustic noise are important for those with hearing impairments. Hearing impairment is associated with a loss of fidelity to quiet sounds, while the threshold of pain remains the same. As such, hearing impairment causes a loss of dynamic range or “window” of detectable sound amplitudes. Directional sensing enables preferentially amplifying desired sounds without amplifying background noise. As the first step, we aim to accelerate the commercialization of recently introduced biologically- inspired “rocking” style microphones by synthesizing these designs with integrated, robust piezoelectric readout which is ideal for addressing the low-power, small-size, and high levels of integration required of the hearing-aid industry. Previous work in this field using laboratory prototypes and optical readout have demonstrated the merits of the biologically-inspired sensing approach (i.e. a simultaneous 20-dB SNR improvement and 10x reduction size improvement beyond what is achievable with present-day hearing-aid or MEMS microphones). By synthesizing a piezoelectric embodiment as an alternative to optical readout, we aim to accelerate through many of the commercialization challenges so that an impact to the hearing device industry can be made. Further, the proposed readout is better adapted towards integrating multiple microphones in the same silicon chip. We aim to integrate a microphone with both in-plane axis of directivity with an out-of-plane directional design to form a complete -axis pressure gradient sensor.

项目概要 我们的目标是向助听设备行业推出具有高指向性的麦克风 信噪比，以及第一个结合了所有三个轴的商业化麦克风 我们期望该技术能够将声压梯度转移到单个硅芯片上。 信号处理社区提供了一种新工具，当与 全向麦克风，将促进超清晰等新功能 用户和/或人工智能算法可以实时调整方向性 扫描所需的输入，同时滤除不需要的噪声的能力。 过滤掉不需要的背景噪音对于有听力的人来说很重要 听力障碍与安静声音的保真度丧失有关，而 疼痛阈值保持不变，因此，听力障碍会导致动力丧失。 可检测声音幅度的范围或“窗口”优先启用方向感测。 放大所需的声音而不放大背景噪音。 作为第一步，我们的目标是加速最近推出的生物技术的商业化 通过将这些设计与集成的、坚固的 压电读出器是解决低功耗、小尺寸和高水平的理想选择 助听器行业之前的工作需要通过实验室进行整合。 原型和光学读数已经证明了受生物学启发的优点 传感方法（即同步 20 dB SNR 改进和 10 倍尺寸减小） 超越了当今助听器或 MEMS 麦克风所能实现的改进）。 通过合成压电实施例作为光学读出的替代方案，我们的目标是 加速解决许多商业化挑战，从而对听证会产生影响 此外，所提出的读数可以更好地适应。 在同一硅芯片中集成多个麦克风我们的目标是集成一个麦克风。 具有面内方向性轴和面外方向性设计，形成完整的 轴压力梯度传感器。