This specification relates to feedback control in an active noise reduction headphone. Reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,074, Bose, “Feedback Control.”
In one aspect of the invention, an apparatus for an active noise reduction headphone includes an acoustic driver assembly for an active noise reduction headphone. The acoustic driver may include a diaphragm and a voice coil, for applying mechanical force to the diaphragm along a force application line. The active noise reduction headphone may include a microphone with a microphone opening positioned within 2 mm of a line parallel to an intended direction of motion of the diaphragm and intersecting the force application line and structure for attenuating frequency response aberrations resulting from resonances of components of the acoustic driver. The structure may include a laminated diaphragm.
In another aspect, an apparatus for an active noise reduction headphone includes an acoustic driver for an active noise reduction headphone, includes a highly damped diaphragm and a voice coil attached to the diaphragm along an attachment line. The active noise reduction headphone also includes a microphone, positioned along a positioning line parallel to an intended direction of motion of the diaphragm and intersecting the attachment line.
In another aspect, a noise reduction headphone includes an earphone for being urged against a user's head to enclose a cavity. The earphone includes an acoustic driver comprising a diaphragm and a voice coil, for applying mechanical force to the diaphragm along a force application line to cause the diaphragm to radiate acoustic energy into the cavity. The earphone further includes a microphone enclosed by the cavity for transducing acoustic energy in the cavity to a noise signal, positioned within 2 mm of a line parallel to an intended direction of motion of the diaphragm and intersecting the force application line; and structure for attenuating frequency response aberrations resulting from resonances of components of the acoustic driver. The structure may be for attenuating frequency response aberrations resulting from resonances of components of a voice coil component of the acoustic driver. The structure may include a damped diaphragm. The opening of the microphone may be positioned on the line parallel to the intended direction of motion.
In another aspect of the invention, a method for increasing phase margin in a feedback circuit of an active noise reduction headphone includes providing an acoustic block that includes an acoustic driver. The acoustic driver includes a voice coil mechanically coupled along an attachment line to an acoustic energy radiating diaphragm. The acoustic block further includes a microphone positioned along a line parallel to an intended direction of vibration of the acoustic diaphragm and intersecting the attachment line. The acoustic block is characterized by a magnitude frequency response. The method includes compensating the magnitude frequency response by a compensation pattern that has a positive slope over at least one spectral range above 10 kHz.
In another aspect, an active noise reduction apparatus includes an acoustic driver. The acoustic driver includes a diaphragm and a voice coil, for applying mechanical force to the diaphragm along a force application line; a microphone with a microphone opening positioned within 2 mm of a line parallel to an intended direction of motion of the diaphragm and intersecting the force application line; and structure for attenuating frequency response aberrations resulting from resonances of components of the acoustic driver. The apparatus also includes an acoustic block characterized by a first magnitude frequency response and a compensator characterized by a second magnitude frequency response to combine the second magnitude frequency response with the first magnitude frequency response to provide a combined magnitude frequency response. The second magnitude frequency response is characterized by a pattern that has a positive slope at a frequency interval in the spectral portion above 10 kHz.
Other features, objects, and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description, when read in connection with the following drawing, in which:
Though the elements of several views of the drawing may be shown and described as discrete elements in a block diagram and may be referred to as “circuitry”, unless otherwise indicated, the elements may be implemented as one of, or a combination of, analog circuitry, digital circuitry, or one or more microprocessors executing software instructions. The software instructions may include digital signal processing (DSP) instructions. Some of the processing operations may be expressed in terms of the calculation and application of coefficients. The equivalent of calculating and applying coefficients can be performed by other analog or digital signal processing techniques and those techniques are included within the scope of this patent application.
Referring to
Referring to
Cavity 12 represents the cavity formed when an earphone of a noise reducing headphone is pressed in, against, or around a user's ear. Combiner 36 is not a physical element, but represents the acoustic summation of noise PI entering cavity 12 from the external environment and acoustic output radiated into cavity 12 by acoustic driver 17, the summation resulting in acoustic energy PO being present in cavity 12. Together, the acoustic elements of
In operation, an amplified error signal VE is combined subtractively with input audio signal VI at signal combiner 30. The summed signals are presented to compensator 37. Compensator 37 provides phase and gain margin to meet the Nyquist stability criterion. Increasing the phase margin can extend the bandwidth over which the system remains stable, can increase the magnitude of feedback applied over a frequency range to increase active noise reduction, or both. Aspects of compensator 37 will be discussed in more detail below. Compensation, which includes applying a pattern in which the magnitude varies with frequency, is similar to the process called “equalization” and for the purposes of this specification an equalization that is applied within feedback circuit 10 is equivalent to compensation. There may be other equalizations in the system; for example audio signal VI may be equalized prior to being applied to combiner 30. Power amplifier 32 amplifies the compensated signal presented to acoustic driver 17. Acoustic driver 17 transduces the amplified audio signal to acoustic energy, which combines with noise PI entering cavity 12 to form combined acoustic energy PO. Microphone 11 transduces combined acoustic energy PO to an audio signal, which is amplified by preamp 35 and presented subtractively as an error signal VE to signal combiner 30.
The closed loop transfer function of the circuit of
where E, B, D, M, and A represent the frequency dependent transfer functions of the compensator, the power amplifier, the acoustic driver, the microphone, and the preamp, respectively. If the EBDMA term of the denominator=−1 (the equivalent of |EBDMA|=1 and a phase angle of −180°) the circuit becomes unstable. It is therefore desirable to arrange the circuit so that the there is a phase margin (as described below) so that the phase angle of EBDMA does not approach −180° for any frequency at which |EBDMA|≧1. For example, if the circuit is arranged so that at any frequency at which |EBDMA|≧1, the phase angle is not more negative than −135°, the phase margin is at least 180°−135° or 45°. Stated differently, to maintain a typical desirable phase margin of no less than 45°, the phase angle of EBDMA at the crossover frequency (the frequency at which the gain of EBDMA is unity or 0 dB) should be ≦−135°. Causing the phase of transfer function EBDMA to be less negative in the vicinity of the crossover frequency can allow an increase in the crossover frequency, thereby extending the effective bandwidth of the system.
Changes of phase angle as a function of frequency are a result of at least two causes: time delays and phase shifts associated with the magnitude of the transfer functions E, B, D, M, and A, which may be frequency dependent. Time delays (for example delay Δt of
Referring to
For purposes of illustration, microphone 11 is shown as thin cylindrical microphones. Other types of microphones are suitable.
An arrangement according to
An arrangement according to
The compensation pattern of
Other implementations are within the scope of the claims.
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