This description relates generally to audio transducers, and more specifically, to an acoustical resistance assembly of a transducer used in an in-ear headphone.
In accordance with one aspect, an electro-acoustic transducer is provided that comprises a diaphragm and a magnet assembly comprising a magnet and a back plate. The back plate comprises at least one first vent. The diaphragm generates sound during a movement of the diaphragm relative to the back plate. The transducer further comprises a printed circuit board comprising at least one second vent and a cavity between the printed circuit board and the back plate that separates the at least one first vent from the at least one second vent.
Examples may include one or more of the following:
A first geometry of the at least one second vent relative to the at least one first vent may provide a first frequency response for the transducer. A second geometry of the at least one second vent relative to the at least one first vent may provide a second frequency response different from the first frequency response for the transducer.
The at least one first vent may include a hole that is offset from an outer diameter of the back plate.
The at least one first vent may be located at an outer diameter of the back plate.
The at least one second vent may comprise micro apertures extending through the printed circuit board, or PCB.
The at least one second vent may range in diameter from 50 μm to 200 μm.
The at least one second vent may comprise a plurality of air holes extending through the printed circuit board and a scrim material coupled to the printed circuit board and positioned over the air holes.
The at least one first vent and the at least one second vent may be constructed and arranged to provide an acoustical resistance of air flowing between an external environment and an interior of the transducer, and for shaping a frequency response for the electro-acoustic transducer.
The at least one first vent of the back plate and the at least one second vent of the printed circuit board may each have a total acoustical impedance that includes a real part and an imaginary part. The real part of the total acoustical impedance of the at least one first vent may be lower than the real part of the total acoustical impedance of the at least one second vent.
In accordance with another aspect, an electro-acoustic transducer is provided that comprises a diaphragm and a magnet assembly comprising a magnet and a back plate. The back plate comprises at least one first vent hole. The diaphragm generates sound during a movement of the diaphragm relative to the back plate. A printed circuit board comprises at least one second vent hole. A cavity between the printed circuit board and the back plate separates the at least one first vent hole from the at least one second vent hole in the printed circuit board. A scrim material is coupled to a surface of the printed circuit board in the cavity, and is positioned over the at least one air hole.
Examples may include one or more of the following:
A first geometry of the at least one first vent hole may provide a first frequency response for the transducer. A second geometry of the at least one vent hole may provide a second frequency response different from the first frequency response for the transducer.
The at least one first vent hole may be offset from an outer diameter of the back plate.
The at least one first vent hole may be located at an outer diameter of the back plate.
The at least one first vent hole and the at least one second vent hole may be constructed and arranged to provide an acoustical resistance of air flowing between an external environment and an interior of the transducer, and for shaping a frequency response for the electro-acoustic transducer.
The at least one first vent hole of the back plate and the at least one second air hole of the printed circuit board may each include a plurality of vent holes having a total acoustical impedance that includes a real part and an imaginary part. The real part of the total acoustical impedance of the back plate vent holes may be lower than the real part of the total acoustical impedance of the printed circuit board vent holes.
In accordance with another aspect, an acoustic device is provided comprising a diaphragm and a magnet assembly comprising a magnet and a back plate. The back plate comprises at least one vent hole. The diaphragm generates sound during a movement of the diaphragm relative to the back plate. A printed circuit board comprises at least one micro vent. A cavity between the printed circuit board and the back plate separates the at least one vent hole from the at least one micro vent of the printed circuit board.
Examples may include one or more of the following:
A first geometry of the at least one micro vent relative to the at least one vent hole may provide a first frequency response for the transducer. A second geometry of the at least one micro vent relative to the at least one vent hole may provide a second frequency response different from the first frequency response for the transducer.
The at least one vent hole and the at least one micro vent may each have a total acoustical impedance that includes a real part and an imaginary part, and wherein the real part of the total acoustical impedance of the at least one back plate vent hole may be lower than a real part of a total acoustical impedance of the at least one micro vent.
The above and further advantages of examples of the present inventive concepts may be better understood by referring to the following description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals indicate like structural elements and features in various figures. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of features and implementations.
Modern in-ear headphones, or earbuds, typically include a microspeaker comprising a permanent magnet and a voice coil that is attached to a diaphragm that pushes the air around it, which in turn creates a sound that is output to a user. In doing so, the microspeaker must produce a sufficient sound pressure over the entire frequency range over which the device will be used.
According to
The diaphragm 14 is coupled to, and driven by, the voice coil 16. More specifically, as is well-known, the voice coil 16 is positioned in a permanent magnetic field generated by the magnet 18 and will move when an electrical current is applied to the voice coil 16. The diaphragm 14 can be circular or non-circular in shape, and is coupled to a diaphragm ring 21 or other supporting member via the suspension element 17, sometimes referred to as a surround. The surround 17 and diaphragm 14 may be constructed as a single component or as separate components. In operation, the surround 17 allows the diaphragm 14 to move in a reciprocating manner in response to an electrical current applied to the voice coil 16. Movement of the diaphragm causes changes in air pressure, which results in a production of sound.
The magnet 18 is sandwiched between the front plate 19 and the back plate 20. The back plate 20 in turn is coupled to the PCB 22. The back plate 20 can have a pole piece 23 that extends from a base portion of the back plate 20 towards the diaphragm 14. The voice coil 16 is positioned about the pole piece 23.
The assembly 10 shown in
A covering, or scrim 24, can be positioned over the back plate vent hole 25 and/or pole piece vent hole 26 to provide an acoustical resistance at the respective vent hole 25, 26. In the example of
An air region between the top surface of the diaphragm 14 and the ear canal (not shown) is represented by an acoustical compliance CAF. The output is the pressure in the front cavity, i.e., at acoustical compliance CAF. The motion of the diaphragm 14 is represented by the volume velocity source U. An air region under the diaphragm 14 in the motor cavity 29 is represented by an acoustical compliance CAM. The active region of the scrim 24 over the vent hole 25, 26 is represented by an acoustical resistance RAV. An air region at the back side of the transducer in a sealed earbud enclosure (not shown) is represented by an acoustical compliance CAB. The acoustical system represented by the equivalent circuit 40 permits the frequency response of the assemblies 10, 30 to be derived mathematically. In particular, acoustical pressure can be plotted as a dependent variable and input excitation frequencies can be plotted independent variables. The curves 71-75 shown in
In
In order to modify the vents in the back plate 20 to tailor the frequency response, structural changes must be made to the PCB, and possibly the scrim 24, 22, to accommodate for the back plate vent hole modifications, for example, to align the openings in the PCB with the back plate vent holes. Scrim materials are typically available having a discrete set of flow resistances. However, the use of commercially available scrim to modify the characteristics of the microspeaker may require the area of the hole and active area of the scrim 24 to be changed. In configurations having a back plate and a PCB, both the back plate and the PCB may need to be changed to modify the frequency response of the microspeaker in the in-ear headset.
In brief overview, examples described herein provide a system and method for venting the motor of a microspeaker in a flexible manner, and with reduced design complexity, to achieve a wide range of frequency responses (e.g. those shown in
Although a microspeaker is shown and described, inventive concepts described herein can equally apply to other small transducers. Referring to
One or more air holes 125 extend through the PCB 122. A scrim 124 is positioned on a surface of the PCB 122 facing the back plate 120, and covers the air holes 125. The scrim 124 can be attached to the PCB 122 by an adhesive or other coupling mechanism or bonding technique. The scrim 124 and PCB 122 are separated from the back plate 120 by a predetermined distance so that a cavity 127 is formed between the PCB 122 and the back plate 120. Scrim material may include, but not be limited to, woven monofilament fabric, wire cloth, nonwoven fabric, or related material to further tune the desired level of acoustical resistance, and thus the frequency response of the microspeaker. Accordingly, acoustical resistances of the scrim material can range from 3 to 260 Pa/(m/s), but not limited thereto. Pore sizes can range from 18 um to 285 um, but not limited thereto.
The air holes 125, either alone or in combination with the scrim 124 shown in
One or more vent holes 132 are located in the back plate 120. Although vent holes 132 are referred to herein, the term vent hole 132 can also refer to notches or the like that are formed at the periphery of the back plate 120. In the example of
The back plate vent holes 132 are constructed and arranged to behave principally as an acoustical mass. More specifically, the vent holes 132 each has a cross-sectional area, diameter, or related dimension that is sufficiently large so that the complex acoustical impedance of the vent holes 132 is primarily imaginary or reactive. There will also be a real or resistive component to the complex acoustical impedance of the vent holes 132. The real part of the total acoustical impedance of all the back plate vent holes combined is significantly lower than the real part of the total acoustical impedance of all the PCB vents combined (including the effect of the scrim 124 if it is present).
As shown in
In accordance with some examples, the scrim 124 covering the air holes 125 in the PCB 122 is represented by an acoustical resistance RAV (distinguished from RAV described with reference to a conventional assembly of
The presence of the back plate vent holes 132 provides additional flexibility with respect to impacting the frequency response of the transducer. As described above, each vent hole 132 acts primarily as an acoustical mass MAV. An acoustical resonance of the system corresponds to the acoustical mass MAV, along with the acoustical compliance of air CAM. The acoustical impedances associated with the back plate vent holes 132, respectively, can be configured to be parallel to each other. The back plate vent holes 132 can be constructed and arranged to achieve this. In doing so, the total acoustical mass can be reduced, which moves the resonance higher in frequency. This resonance may be dampened due to the acoustical resistance of the PCB 22 (with or without the scrim 24), which may be problematic if the acoustical resistance is too low.
In some examples, the back plate vent holes 132 are each positioned on an axis that may extend in a direction of diaphragm motion. The PCB air holes 125 can be offset from the back plate vent holes 132, i.e., positioned on a different axis than the axis along which a neighboring back plate vent hole 132 is positioned. Alignment of the PCB air holes 125 and back plate vent holes 132 is not necessary because the pressure in the cavity 127 is assumed to be uniform at the frequencies of interest. Accordingly, PCB air holes 125 and back plate vent holes 132 can be misaligned with respect to each other, with no penalty with respect to performance. This provides flexibility in the mechanical design of these components so that they can be made easier to fabricate and assemble as compared to conventional approaches. Accordingly, to achieve, for example, to shape, a desired frequency response in a transducer design, only modifications to the PCB air hole geometry are required.
Turning to
The acoustical resistance assembly 200 can be represented by the acoustical impedance circuit 140 illustrated at
As described above, the back plate vent holes 132 can behave principally as an acoustical mass. On the other hand, the micro vents 225 are configured to have an area, length, and/or related dimensions to behave principally as an acoustical resistance. A relevant and important feature is for the real part of the total acoustical impedance of all the PCB vents combined (including the effect of scrim if it is present) to be significantly higher than the real part of the total acoustical impedance of all the back plate vent holes.
The size, shape, location, number, and placement of the micro vents 225 in the PCB 222 can vary, as can the number of micro vents 225, depending on the desired frequency response for the microspeaker, the mechanical resistance of the microspeaker in a vacuum, manufacturability, and other design considerations. The acoustical resistance provided to the system by each vent hole depends on its length and diameter—in particular, the smaller the diameter, the higher the acoustical resistance (assuming a fixed length), and the longer the hole, the higher the acoustical resistance (assuming a fixed diameter). Additionally, for substantially identical holes, the total acoustical resistance is inversely proportional to the number of holes. Thus, adding holes reduces the total acoustical resistance, while removing holes increases the total acoustical resistance. As an example, for a fixed PCB thickness (and thus vent hole length) of 360 μm, the effect of the acoustical resistance provided by a varying number of holes is shown in
When tuning the damping of the microspeaker, a number of micro vents 225 can be determined. By increasing or decreasing the number of micro vents 225 the frequency response can be changed. The micro vents 225 are offset with respect to a set of back plate vents 132, and separated from the back plate vents 132 by the cavity 127, achieving similar benefits as those described with reference to acoustical resistance assembly 100 described in
With reference to
A cavity 127 is formed by the back plate 320 and a scrim 124 coupled to the PCB 322. The cavity 127 provides for a volume of air can be represented by an equivalent acoustical compliance CAG illustrated in the acoustical impedance circuit 140 illustrated at
With reference to
A number of implementations have been described. Nevertheless, it will be understood that the foregoing description is intended to illustrate and not to limit the scope of the inventive concepts which are defined by the scope of the claims. Other examples are within the scope of the following claims.