The described embodiments relate generally to methods for preventing contaminates from entering a device housing. More particularly, the present embodiments relate to methods and apparatus for preventing or at least reducing a rate at which a magnetic element of a voice coil motor draws magnetically attractable particles into the device housing.
As an electronic device assumes progressively thinner profiles, internal electronic components suitable for performing various tasks can be forced closer towards various openings of the electronic device. In some cases, a magnet responsible for generating audio signals is purposefully placed near an opening in the electronic device to optimize an emitted audio signal. Unfortunately, a magnetic field emitted by such a magnet can cause various magnetically attractable particles to be drawing through the opening. These magnetically attractable contaminates can accumulate within the electronic device to a point at which functionality of internal components of the electronic device suffer degradation and in some cases complete failure. While a protective screen positioned across the opening can be effective to keep larger particles out, reduction in aperture of the screen below a certain threshold can substantially degrade the passage of signals along the lines of audio signals. For this reason, modern designs often allow small particles on the order of below 10 microns to pass into the electronic device. In some embodiments, a build up of the small particles can inhibit movement of audio generating components, thereby degrading and in some cases preventing operation of the audio components.
This paper describes various embodiments that relate to methods and apparatus for preventing ingress of magnetically attractable particles through an audio port.
A speaker assembly for an electronic device is disclosed. The speaker assembly includes at least the following: a speaker that includes a magnetic element that emits a magnetic field used to actuate an acoustic membrane that generates audio signals; and a speaker enclosure substantially surrounding the speaker assembly and defining an opening that provides an outlet for the audio signals produced by the acoustic membrane. The speaker enclosure includes magnetically permeable material positioned proximate the opening in a manner that shapes the magnetic field such that magnetically attractable particles from an external environment are inhibited from being magnetically drawn through the opening.
A speaker assembly configured to be affixed to an interior surface of a housing of an electronic device is disclosed. The speaker assembly includes at least the following: a speaker enclosure defining an opening leading towards a position at which an opening in the interior surface of the housing is positioned when the speaker assembly is affixed to the interior surface of the housing, the speaker enclosure including magnetically permeable material arranged around the opening defined by the speaker enclosure; a magnet disposed within and substantially surrounded by the speaker enclosure; an electrically conductive ring electrically coupled with a power supply that supplies the electrically conductive ring with modulated current during operation of the speaker assembly; and a diaphragm coupled with and disposed across the electrically conductive ring. The electrically conductive ring and the magnet cooperate to vibrate the electrically conductive ring so that the diaphragm generates an audio signal that is transmitted through the opening defined by the speaker enclosure, and the magnetically permeable material is positioned to redirect a portion of the magnetic fields extending outside of the electronic device without obstructing the opening defined by the speaker enclosure.
An electronic device is disclosed and includes at least the following: a device housing defining a speaker opening; and a speaker assembly affixed to an interior facing surface of the device housing that includes the speaker opening. The speaker assembly includes at least the following: a speaker enclosure defining an opening oriented towards the speaker opening in the interior surface of the device housing, the speaker enclosure comprising magnetically permeable material distributed around the opening defined by the speaker enclosure; a magnet disposed within and substantially surrounded by the speaker enclosure; and an acoustic membrane stretched over an electrically conductive ring, the electrically conductive ring configured to emit a shifting magnetic field that cooperates with a magnetic field emitted by the magnet to cause the acoustic membrane to generate an audio output that is transmitted through the opening of the speaker enclosure and the speaker opening.
Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the described embodiments.
The disclosure will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals designate like structural elements, and in which:
This application is related to another provisional patent application entitled, “Acoustic mesh features of an electronic device” that discusses a number of acoustic and cosmetic mesh embodiments to include various stackups, mesh stiffener elements and three dimensional mesh configurations.
Representative applications of methods and apparatus according to the present application are described in this section. These examples are being provided solely to add context and aid in the understanding of the described embodiments. It will thus be apparent to one skilled in the art that the described embodiments may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well known process steps have not been described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the described embodiments. Other applications are possible, such that the following examples should not be taken as limiting.
In the following detailed description, references are made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in which are shown, by way of illustration, specific embodiments in accordance with the described embodiments. Although these embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable one skilled in the art to practice the described embodiments, it is understood that these examples are not limiting; such that other embodiments may be used, and changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the described embodiments.
Audio components often use magnetic elements for converting a signal that includes auditory information into sound waves. By modulating an amount of current circulating through an electrically conductive coil a shifting magnetic field can be created that interacts with a magnetic field associated with a permanent magnet. The electrically conductive coil and a diaphragm attached thereto can then move in response to a changing magnetic force caused by interactions between the magnetic fields to produce audio waves. Depending upon a position of the permanent magnet within a device housing, the magnetic field emitted by the permanent magnet can continuously attract magnetically attractable particles external to the housing.
Because the permanent magnet is generally arranged close to an opening in the housing to facilitate exit of the audio waves generated by the audio components, the magnetically attractable particles tend to be drawn into the housing through the opening. Although such an opening is typically covered with a porous mesh, small magnetically attractable particles with a diameter smaller than the pores of the porous mesh can be drawn through the porous mesh. Once the magnetically attractable particles enter the housing they are drawn towards the permanent magnet and tend to build up on the diaphragm, especially given that the diaphragm is typically positioned just above the permanent magnet. Over time the build up of even small magnetically attractable particles can degrade or even prevent movement of the diaphragm.
One solution to this problem is to place a magnetically permeable material between the permanent magnet and a wall of the device housing through which the magnetic field of the permanent magnet extends. The magnetically permeable material can be arranged around a pathway between the opening and the permanent magnet so that a flow of audio waves out of the housing remains unimpeded. Notwithstanding the opening, the magnetically permeable material can redirect the magnetic field of the permanent magnet so that the magnetic field is less concentrated just above the opening leading into the device. In this way, the ingress of magnetically attractable particles can be reduced to a level at which magnetically attractable particles are less likely to prevent or degrade movement of the diaphragm. With the exception of an open audio pathway leading out of an earpiece enclosure surrounding the audio component, magnetically permeable material can be insert-molded within the earpiece enclosure so that the permanent magnet is substantially surrounded by magnetically permeable material. The inclusion of generous amounts of magnetically permeable material immediately around the permanent magnet can also reduce a likelihood of the permanent magnet interfering with other internal electrical components disposed within the housing. It should be noted that in addition to reducing the effect of the external magnetic field, by insert-molding robust magnetically permeable material into the earpiece enclosure a thickness of the earpiece enclosure can be considerably reduced, when compared with a plastic earpiece enclosure, without impairing a structural soundness of the earpiece enclosure. The thinned earpiece enclosure walls can also enhance audio performance of the audio component by increasing the volume available to the transducer.
These and other embodiments are discussed below with reference to
Also depicted in
In some embodiments, earpiece assembly 300 can include an additional electrically conductive coil 314. Electrically conductive coil 314 can be utilized to provide an additional magnetic field that interacts with the magnetic field produced by magnet 206 and the magnetic field produced by electrically conductive coil 312. In some embodiments, all three magnetic fields can cooperate to create magnetic signatures not otherwise possible. For example, current in both electrically conductive coils 312 and 314 can run in opposite directions while being modulated in different patterns. In other embodiments, current modulations and amplitudes can be at least partially synchronized. Because diaphragm 310 is only flexibly connected to the enclosure by flexible connectors 316, diaphragm 310 can be vertically displaced to generate sound waves 318 in the direction indicated by the arrows over diaphragm 310. The vertical displacement can be driven at a frequency that causes sound waves 318 to match audio content specified in data stored and/or received by electronic device 100. In some embodiments, flexible connectors 316 can be configured to electrically couple electrically conductive coil 312 to the power supply. In other embodiments, electrically conductive coil 312 can be electrically coupled to the power supply by a separate electrical connector (not depicted). Regardless of how the coils are powered, the varying Lorentz force produced by modulating current through the electrically conductive coil or coils can cause vertical displacement to occur in a desired pattern that corresponds to audio information received by electronic device 100. It should be noted that in addition to insert molding magnetically permeable material 308 into components surrounding magnet 206, magnetic shunt 322 can be positioned directly below magnet 206. In some embodiments, magnetic shunt 322 can be configured to snap into and be held within an opening defined by an insert-molded portion of earpiece enclosure 208. Magnetic shunt 322 can substantially prevent magnetic radiation from extending directly below magnet 206. This can be particularly beneficial where magnetically sensitive components along the lines of a printed circuit board are located below magnetic shunt 322.
The electronic device 900 also includes a user input device 908 that allows a user of the electronic device 900 to interact with the electronic device 900. For example, the user input device 908 can take a variety of forms, such as a button, keypad, dial, touch screen, audio input interface, visual/image capture input interface, input in the form of sensor data, etc. Still further, the electronic device 900 includes a display 910 (screen display) that can be controlled by the processor 902 to display information to the user. A data bus 916 can facilitate data transfer between at least the file system 904, the cache 906, the processor 902, and a CODEC 913. The CODEC 913 can be used to decode and play a plurality of media items from file system 904 that can correspond to certain activities taking place during a particular manufacturing process. The processor 902, upon a certain manufacturing event occurring, supplies the media data (e.g., audio file) for the particular media item to a coder/decoder (CODEC) 913. The CODEC 913 then produces analog output signals for a speaker 914. The speaker 914 can be a speaker internal to the electronic device 900 or external to the electronic device 900. For example, headphones or earphones that connect to the electronic device 900 would be considered an external speaker.
The electronic device 900 also includes a network/bus interface 911 that couples to a data link 912. The data link 912 allows the electronic device 900 to couple to a host computer or to accessory devices. The data link 912 can be provided over a wired connection or a wireless connection. In the case of a wireless connection, the network/bus interface 911 can include a wireless transceiver. The media items (media assets) can pertain to one or more different types of media content. In one embodiment, the media items are audio tracks (e.g., songs, audio books, and podcasts). In another embodiment, the media items are images (e.g., photos). However, in other embodiments, the media items can be any combination of audio, graphical or visual content. Sensor 926 can take the form of circuitry for detecting any number of stimuli. For example, sensor 926 can include any number of sensors for monitoring various operating conditions of electronic device 900, such as for example a Hall Effect sensor responsive to external magnetic field, a temperature sensor, an audio sensor, a light sensor such as a photometer, a depth measurement device such as a laser interferometer and so on.
The various aspects, embodiments, implementations or features of the described embodiments can be used separately or in any combination. Various aspects of the described embodiments can be implemented by software, hardware or a combination of hardware and software. The described embodiments can also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable medium for controlling manufacturing operations or as computer readable code on a computer readable medium for controlling a manufacturing line. The computer readable medium is any data storage device that can store data which can thereafter be read by a computer system. Examples of the computer readable medium include read-only memory, random-access memory, CD-ROMs, HDDs, DVDs, magnetic tape, and optical data storage devices. The computer readable medium can also be distributed over network-coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.
The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, used specific nomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the described embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the specific details are not required in order to practice the described embodiments. Thus, the foregoing descriptions of specific embodiments are presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the described embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings.
This is a continuation of International PCT Application No. PCT/US15/10333, filed Jan. 6, 2015, and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/047,441, filed Sep. 8, 2014, and entitled “EARPIECE INTEGRATED MAGNETIC SHIELDING FOR MITIGATING INGRESS OF MAGNETIC PARTICLES”, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. This application is related to (i) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/047,567, filed Sep. 8, 2014, and entitled “ACOUSTIC MESH AND METHODS OF USE FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICES”, and (ii) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/047,561, filed Sep. 8, 2014, and entitled “SHIELD FOR ACOUSTIC DEVICE”.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62047441 | Sep 2014 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/US15/10333 | Jan 2015 | US |
Child | 14590842 | US |