The present invention pertains to microphones and, more particularly, to micromachined differential microphones and optical interferometry to produce an electrical output signal.
Low noise and low power are essential characteristics for hearing aid microphones. Most high performance microphones, and particularly miniature microphones, consist of a thin diaphragm along with a spaced apart, parallel back plate electrode; they use capacitive sensing to detect diaphragm motion. This permits detecting the change in capacitance between the pressure-sensitive diaphragm and the back plate electrode. In order to detect this change in capacitance, a bias voltage must first be imposed between the back plate and the diaphragm.
This voltage creates practical constraints on the mechanical design of the diaphragm that compromise its effectiveness in detecting sound. Specifically, inherent in the capacitive sensing configuration are a few limitations. First, viscous damping caused by air between the diaphragm and the back plate can have a significant negative effect on the response. Second, the signal to noise ratio is reduced by the electronic noise associated with capacitive sensing and the thermal noise associated with a passive damping. Moreover, due to the viscosity of air, a significant source of microphone self noise is introduced. Third, while the electrical sensitivity is proportional to the bias voltage, when the voltage exceeds a critical value, the attractive force causes the diaphragm to collapse against the back plate.
To illustrate the limitations imposed on the noise performance of the read-out circuitry used in a capacitive sensing scheme, consider the buffer amplifier having a white noise spectrum given by N volts/√Hz. If the effective sensitivity of the capacitive microphone is S volts/Pascal then the input-referred noise is N/S Pascals/√Hz.
In a conventional capacitive microphone, the sensitivity may be approximated by:
where Vb is the bias voltage, A is the area, h is the air gap between the diaphragm and the back plate, and k is the mechanical stiffness of the diaphragm.
For purposes of this discussion, assume that the resonant frequency of the diaphragm is beyond the highest frequency of interest. The input referred noise of the buffer amplifier then becomes:
Theoretically, this noise can be reduced by increasing the bias voltage, Vb, or by reducing the diaphragm stiffness, k. Unfortunately, these parameters cannot be adjusted independently because the forces that are created by the biasing electric field can cause the diaphragm to collapse against the back plate. In a constant voltage (as opposed to constant charge) biasing scheme, the collapse voltage is given by:
where ε is the permittivity of the air in the gap. Diaphragms that have low equivalent mechanical stiffness, k, have low collapse voltages. To avoid collapse, Vb<<Vcollapse.
Equation 3 clearly shows that the collapse voltage can be increased by increasing the gap spacing, h. Increasing h, however, reduces the microphone capacitance, which is inversely proportional to the nominal gap spacing, h. Since miniature microphones, and particularly silicon microphones, have very small diaphragm areas, A, the capacitance tends to be rather small, on the order of 1 pF. The small capacitance of the microphone challenges the designer of the buffer amplifier because of parasitic capacitances and the effective noise gain of the overall circuit.
For these reasons, the gap, h, used in silicon microphones tends to be small, on the order of 5 μm. The use of a gap that is as small as 5 μm introduces yet another limitation on the performance that is imposed by capacitive sensing. As the diaphragm moves in response to fluctuating acoustic pressures, the air in the narrow gap between the diaphragm and the back plate is squeezed and forced to flow in the plane of the diaphragm. Because h is much smaller than the thickness of the viscous boundary layer (typically on the order of hundreds of μm), this flow produces viscous forces that damp the diaphragm motion. It is well known that this squeeze film damping is a primary source of thermal noise in silicon microphones.
The optical sensing approach hereinafter described is intended to be used with the microphone diaphragms described in Cui, W. et al., “Optical Sensing in a Directional MEMS Microphone Inspired by the Ears of the Parasitoid Fly, Ormia Ochracea”, January, 2006. These diaphragms incorporate carefully designed hinges that control their overall compliance and sensitivity. By combining the inventive optical sensing approach with these microphone diaphragm concepts, miniature microphones can be manufactured with extremely high sensitivity and low noise. Low noise, directional miniature microphones can be fabricated with high sensitivity for hearing aid applications. Incorporation of optical sensing provides high electrical sensitivity, which, combined with the high mechanical sensitivity of the microphone membrane, results in a low minimum detectable pressure level.
Although optical interferometry has long been used for low noise mechanical measurements, the high voltage and power levels needed for lasers and the lack of integration have prohibited the application of this technique to micromachined microphones. These limitations have recently been overcome by methods and devices as described by Degertekin et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,567,572 for “Optical Displacement Sensor,” copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/704,932, filed by Degertekin et al. on Nov. 10, 2003 for “Highly-Sensitive Displacement Measuring Optical Device”, and copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/297,097, for “Displacement Sensor”, filed by Degertekin et al. Dec. 8, 2005
, all hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide a MEMS differential microphone having enhanced sensitivity.
It is another object of the invention to provide a MEMS differential microphone having optical means for converting sound-induced motion of the diaphragm into an electronic signal.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a MEMS differential microphone exhibiting a first order differential response to provide a directional microphone.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a MEMS differential microphone having a silicon membrane diaphragm and protective front screen fabricated using silicon micro-fabrication techniques.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a MEMS differential microphone having low power consumption.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a MEMS differential microphone suitable for use in hearing aids.
It is another object of the invention to provide a MEMS differential microphone using a optical interferometer to convert sound impinging upon the microphone to an electrical output signal.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a MEMS differential microphone wherein the optical interferometer is implemented using a miniature laser such as a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL).
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a microphone having optical means for converting the sound-induced motion of the microphone diaphragm into an electronic signal. A diffraction device (e.g., a diffraction grating or, in alternate embodiments, inter-digitated fingers) is integrated with the microphone diaphragm to implement an optical interferometer which has the sensitivity of a Michelson interferometer. Because of the unique construction, the bulky and heavy beam splitter normally required in a Michelson interferometer is eliminated allowing a miniature, lightweight microphone to be fabricated. The microphone has a polysilicon diaphragm formed as a silicon substrate using a combination of surface and bulk micromachining techniques.
The approximately 1 mm×2 mm microphone diaphragm has stiffeners formed on a back surface thereof. The diaphragm rotates or “rocks” about a central pivot or hinge thereby providing differential response. The diaphragm is designed to respond to pressure gradients, giving it a first order directional response to incident sound.
The inventive microphone diaphragm coupled with a diffraction-based optical sensing scheme provides directional response in a miniature MEMS microphone. This type of device is especially useful for hearing aid applications where it is desirable to reduce external acoustic noise to improve speech intelligibility.
A complete understanding of the present invention may be obtained by reference to the accompanying drawings, when considered in conjunction with the subsequent detailed description, in which:
a and 1b are schematic, side, sectional and schematic perspective views, respectively, of the optical sensing, differential microphone of the invention;
a, 2b, and 2c are schematic plan views of a diaphragm of the microphone of
a, 3b and 3c are calculated reflected diffraction patterns using scalar far-field diffraction formulation for gap values of λ/2, λ/4, and λ/8, respectively;
a-6d are a fabrication process flow showing a set of possible fabrication steps useful for forming the microphone of
a and 7b are a front side optical and a rear side SEM view of the diaphragm of the microphone of
Generally speaking, the present invention is a directional microphone incorporating a diaphragm, movable in response to sound pressure and an optical sensing mechanism for detecting diaphragm displacement. The diaphragm of the microphone is designed to respond to pressure gradients, giving it a first order directional response to incident sound. This mechanical structure is integrated with a compact optical sensing mechanism that uses optical interferometry to generate an electrical output signal representative of the sound impinging upon the microphone's diaphragm. The novel structure overcomes adverse effects of capacitive sensing of microphones of the prior art.
One of the main objectives of the present invention is to provide a differential microphone suitable for use in a hearing aid and which uses optical sensing in cooperation with a micromachined diaphragm. Of course other applications for sensitive, miniature, directional microphones are within the scope of the invention. Optical sensing provides high electrical sensitivity, which, in combination with high mechanical sensitivity of the microphone membrane, results in a small minimum detectable sound pressure level.
Although optical interferometry has long been used for low noise mechanical measurements, the large size, high voltage and power levels needed for lasers, and the lack of integration have heretofore prohibited the application of optical interferometry to miniature, micromachined microphones. These limitations have recently been overcome by methods and devices as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,567,572 for OPTICAL DISPLACEMENT SENSOR, issued May 20, 2003 to Degertekin et al. and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/704,932, for HIGHLY SENSITIVE DISPLACEMENT MEASURING OPTICAL DEVICE, filed Nov. 10, 2003 by Degertekin et al.
Referring first to
In alternate embodiments, slits 120c (
A protective screen 112 is disposed intermediate a sound source 110 and a front face of diaphragm 102. Screen 112 is isolated therefrom by a layer 136, typically formed from silicon dioxide or the like. In the preferred embodiment, protective screen 112 consists of a micromachined silicon plate that contains a plurality of very small holes, slits, or other orifices 114 sized to exclude airborne particulate contamination (e.g., dust) from diaphragm 102 and other interior regions, not shown, of microphone 100. The small holes 114, however, allow the passage of sound pressure 110.
A lower surface of protective screen 112 bears an electrically conductive (typically metallic) layer 118 used to apply a voltage dependent force (i.e., a mechanical bias) to diaphragm 102 as described in detail hereinbelow. The application of a voltage dependent force enables optimizing the position of diaphragm 102 to achieve maximum sensitivity of the optical sensing portion of microphone 100. Conductive layer 118, in addition to helping provide a voltage dependent force, also provides an optically reflective surface that enables the detection of interference fringes between the reflected light from the diffraction mechanism 120 (e.g., optical grating 120a, etc.) incorporated on/into diaphragm 102 and screen 112 disposed forward of diaphragm 102. Screen 112 must be as stiff as possible so that the reflective surface of conductive layer 118 is mechanically stable with respect to movements of diaphragm 102. The reflective rear surface of conductive layer 118 forms a fixed mirror portion of the optical interferometer. Screen 112 is integrally attached to diaphragm 102 and manufactured as part of the micromachining process used to form forming microphone 100. The micromachining process is described in detail hereinbelow.
A miniature vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) 122 is disposed behind diaphragm 102, typically on or in a bottom chip 140. Bottom chip 140 is typically attached to the remainder of microphone 100 by a bonding layer 138. Coherent light 132 from VCSEL 122 is directed toward diffraction mechanism 120. A Model VCT-F85-A32 VCSEL supplied by Lasermate Corp. operating at a wavelength of approximately 0.85 μm with an aperture of approximately 9 μm has been found suitable for the application. It will be recognized, however, that other similar coherent light sources provided by other vendors may be suitable for the application. Consequently, the invention is not limited to a particular model or operating wavelength but includes any suitable coherent light source operating at any wavelength.
An array of photodetectors 124 is also disposed behind diaphragm 102. In the embodiment chosen for purposes of disclosure, a linear array of three photodetectors 124 appropriately spaced to capture the zeroth and first orders of refracted light as described hereinbelow. In some embodiments, VCSEL 122, can be tilted with respect to the plane of the photodetectors so that the reflected diffraction orders are efficiently captured by the array of photodetectors 124.
In other embodiments, the miniature laser and the array of photodetectors can be formed on the same substrate, such as a gallium arsenide semiconductor material.
The components shown schematically in
The diffraction grating 120a or other diffraction apparatus 120 on the microphone diaphragm 102 and the reflective surface of metallic coating 118 on the protective screen 112 together form a phase-sensitive diffraction grating. Such structures are used to detect displacements as small as 2×10−4 Å/√Hz in atomic force microscope (AFM), micromachined accelerometer, and acoustic transducer applications.
When the structure of
In an alternate embodiment of the inventive microphone, interdigitated fingers 120b (
In embodiments utilizing interdigitated fingers, fingers of approximately 100 μm length and 1 μm width having approximately 4 μm periodicity have been found suitable for the application. While the aforementioned dimensions have been determined by detailed finite element analysis, other interdigitated geometries, of course, may be used. Interdigitated fingers may be disposed at one or both ends of diaphragm 102 where deflection thereof is greatest. In alternate embodiments, one or more groups of interdigitated fingers may be disposed at any position on the perimeter of diaphragm 102.
Referring now to
Optical output signals can be converted to electrical signals by placing three 100 μm by 100 μm silicon photodetectors at x=0, and x=±150 μm to capture the zero and first orders. The intensities, I0 and I1 can be expressed as a function of the gap thickness, d0 128 (
As may be seen in
where Iin is the incident laser intensity and R is the photodetector responsivity. It may be concluded, therefore, that the inventive structure provides the sensitivity of a Michelson interferometer for small displacements of the microphone diaphragm with the following advantages:
Since the curves in
The use of a miniature laser is important when implementing the optical sensing method of the invention. The recent availability of VCSELs, for example, is helpful in creating a practical differential microphone using optical sensing. These efficient micro-scale lasers have become available due to recent developments in opto-electronics and optical communications. VCSELs are ideal for low voltage, low power applications because they can be switched on and off, typically using 1-2V pulses with threshold currents in the 1 mA range to reduce average power. VCSELs having threshold currents below 400 pA are available. The noise performance of VCSELs has also been improving rapidly. This improvement helps make them suitable for sensor applications where high dynamic ranges (e.g., in the 120-130 dBs) are desirable. Furthermore, using the differential detection scheme (between I1 and I±1, in Equation (5)), the intensity noise is reduced to negligible levels.
One important concern with optical detection methods is power consumption. Given the mechanical sensitivity of the microphone diaphragm 102 in m/Pa, the minimum detectable displacement (MDD) determines the power consumption. As an example, for a typical differential microphone diaphragm suitable for use in the optical sensing microphone of the invention, having a mechanical sensitivity of 10 nm/Pa, an input sound pressure referred noise floor of 15 dBA SPL requires an MDD of 1×10−4 Å/√Hz. To predict the power consumption required for this MDD, a noise analysis of the photodetector-amplifier system has been performed based on an 850 nm VCSEL as the light source and responsivity of the photodetector, R=0.5 A/W.
A transimpedance configuration formed using a commercially available micro power amplifier (Analog Devices OP193, 1.7V, 25, uW, en=65 nV/VHz, in =0.05 pA/√Hz) was analyzed. Transimpedance amplifier topologies are known to those of skill in the art and are not further disclosed herein.
The results show that the average laser power required for 1×10−4 Å/√Hz, is an MDD of approximately 20 pW. Similar values (e.g., 5.5×10−4 Å/√Hz with 3 pW optical power) have already been achieved in some AFM applications. This average power may be achieved using the VCSEL in the pulsed mode as described in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/297,097
filed by Degertekin et al. on Dec. 8, 2005 for “Displacement Sensor”. Assuming 30% wall plug efficiency for the VCSEL, 20 pW optical power can be obtained with about 80 pW input power including optical losses. See http://www.ulm-photonics.de. Therefore, it is possible to achieve a 15 dBA noise floor using an optical sensing technique with total power consumption of less than 100 pW, including associated electronics, which is comparable to the power consumption of a directional hearing aid with two electret microphones (for example, a Knowles electronics model EM series). Furthermore, the development of more efficient VCSELs in the pulse-modulation mode is expected to help reduce both the power consumption and to improve of low-frequency amplifier noise.
Implementation of the photodetectors 124 with integrated amplifiers in CMOS technology is facilitated by the fact that the proposed optical sensing scheme does not impose strict design requirements with the exception of the low power consumption.
Referring now to
As shown in
The etching process is followed by a wet oxidation at approximately 1100° C. to grow an approximately one-micron thick thermal oxide layer 154 on the wafer 150 surface and in the trenches 152 as shown in
As seen in
The back cavity region 156 is then etched using a deep reactive ion etch and the thermal oxide layer 154 is removed in buffered oxide etch (BOE). The final step is to etch the polysilicon 158 to define the interdigitated fingers 162 and slits 164 that separate the diaphragm 102 from the substrate 150.
Referring now also to
The microphone diaphragm 102 is separated from the substrate with an approximately 2 μm gap around the edge and the center hinges for acoustical damping and electrical isolation.
The details of the interdigitated fingers can be seen in
It will be recognized that other fabrication processes and/or materials may be used to form structures similar to that described herein. The invention, therefore, is not limited to the fabrication steps and/or material chosen for purposes of disclosure. Rather, the invention contemplates any and all fabrication processes and materials suitable for forming a microphone as described herein.
Hall N. and Degertekin F. L., An Integrated Optical Detection Method for Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers, Proceedings of 2000 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, pp. 951-954, 2000.
Hall N. A. and Degertekin F. L., An Integrated Optical Interferometric Detection Method for Micromachined Capacitive Acoustic Transducers, Appl. Phys. Lett., 80, pp. 3859-61 2002.
W. Lee and F. L. Degertekin, Rigorous Coupled-wave Analysis of Multilayered Grating Structures, IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology, 22, pp. 2359-63, 2004
W. Cui, B. Bicen, N. Hall, S. A. Jones, F. L. Degertekin, and R. N. Miles Proceedings of 19th IEEE International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS 2006), Jan. 22-26, 2006, Istanbul, Turkey. Optical sensing in a directional MEMS microphone inspired by the ears of the parasitoid fly, Ormia ochracea
Since other modifications and changes varied to fit particular operating requirements and environments will be apparent to those skilled in the art, this invention is not considered limited to the example chosen for purposes of this disclosure, and covers all changes and modifications which does not constitute departures from the true spirit and scope of this invention.
Having thus described the invention, what is desired to be protected by Letters Patent is presented in the subsequently appended claims.
The present application is related to U.S. Pat. No. 6,788,796 for DIFFERENTIAL MICROPHONE, issued Sep. 7, 2004; and copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/689,189 for ROBUST DIAPHRAGM FOR AN ACOUSTIC DEVICE, filed Oct. 20, 2003, and Ser. No. 11/198,370 for COMB SENSE MICROPHONE, filed Aug. 5, 2005, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
This invention was made with U.S. Government Support under contract R01DC005762 awarded by the NIH. The government has certain rights in the invention.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 11335137 | Jan 2006 | US |
Child | 12911449 | US |