A sub-MW electromagnetic microspeaker with bass enhancement using a parylene/graphene/parylene composite membrane

This paper demonstrates an ultra-low-power electromagnetic microspeaker where a parylene/ graphene/parylene composite layer is employed as the speaker membrane for not only bass sound enhancement but also for power improvement. The speaker with a ∼500 nm thin composite membrane in a size of 3.5 mm in diameter can exhibit a sound output of 104 dB sound pressure level (SPL) @ 670 Hz in a 2 c.c. coupler with an input power of 380 μW. This composite membrane speaker with the least power consumption performance has shown its great potential for the Completely-in-the-Canal (CIC) hearing aids applications with better battery life.

[1]  C. S. Chen,et al.  Flexible and transparent graphene-based loudspeakers , 2013 .

[2]  K. J. Gabriel,et al.  CMOS-MEMS membrane for audio-frequency acoustic actuation , 2001, Technical Digest. MEMS 2001. 14th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (Cat. No.01CH37090).

[3]  Sukhan Lee,et al.  MEMS for IT applications , 2001, MHS2001. Proceedings of 2001 International Symposium on Micromechatronics and Human Science (Cat. No.01TH8583).

[4]  Y. C. Chen,et al.  A low-power milliwatt electromagnetic microspeaker using a PDMS membrane for hearing aids application , 2011, 2011 IEEE 24th International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems.

[5]  Sang-Soo Je,et al.  A Compact, Low-Power, and Electromagnetically Actuated Microspeaker for Hearing Aids , 2008, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[6]  William Plowden The Compact , 2003 .

[7]  Wanlin Guo,et al.  Low-voltage Driven Graphene Foam Thermoacoustic Speaker. , 2015, Small.

[8]  E. S. Kim,et al.  Fully-microfabricated electromagnetically-actuated membrane for microspeaker , 2015, 2015 Transducers - 2015 18th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (TRANSDUCERS).

[9]  T. Hsu MEMS and Microsystems: Design, Manufacture, and Nanoscale Engineering , 2008 .

[10]  Ole Hansen,et al.  Balanced membrane micromachined loudspeaker for hearing instrument application , 2001 .

[11]  Gaël Pillonnet,et al.  Electromagnetic MEMS microspeaker for portable electronic devices , 2013 .

[12]  A. Zettl,et al.  Electrostatic Graphene Loudspeaker , 2013, 1303.2391.

[13]  S. Sánchez-Solano,et al.  Characterization and Modelling of Circular Piezoelectric Micro Speakers for Audio Acoustic Actuation , 2011 .

[14]  R. Ruoff,et al.  Thermoacoustic Sound Generation from Monolayer Graphene for Transparent and Flexible Sound Sources , 2012, Advanced materials.

[15]  He Tian,et al.  The use of graphene-based earphones in wireless communication , 2015 .