Patent Application
20250088791
An aspect of the disclosure is directed to a transducer surround having a barometric vent. Other aspects are also described and claimed.
Portable communications or listening devices (e.g., smart phones, earphones, etc.) have within them one or more transducers that convert an input electrical audio signal into a sound pressure wave output that can be heard by the user, or a sound pressure wave input into an electrical audio signal. The transducer (e.g., a speaker) can be used to, for example, output sound pressure waves corresponding to the voice of a far end user, such as during a telephone call, or to output sound pressure waves corresponding to sounds associated with a game or music the user wishes to play. Due to the relatively low profile of the portable devices, the transducers also have a relatively low profile, which in turn, can make it difficult to maintain optimal sound quality.
An aspect of the disclosure is directed to a device and/or transducer assembly having a barometric vent formed through the surround to reduce the device footprint required for the barometric vent and increase interior volumes for improved acoustic performance. Representatively, in some aspects, a barometric vent is used to equalize pressure between chambers within the transducer (e.g., front volume chamber and back volume chamber). To accommodate the barometric vent, the transducer enclosure or frame footprint is often increased to include an additional pocket or structure that forms an opening between the chambers and a membrane sealed over the opening to form the barometric vent. This increased footprint, however, may take away from an acoustic volume within the enclosure and reduce the size of the interior chambers (e.g., reducing the back volume chamber). This, in turn, may reduce the acoustic performance of the transducer. The instant disclosure, on the other hand, provides for a barometric vent through the surround so that an increase in the frame footprint is not necessary. Representatively, in one aspect, the surround may include a projecting portion sealed to the frame and the barometric vent may be stacked on top of the projecting portion. Since the barometric vent is stacked on top of the surround-to-frame seal a smaller footprint is achieved. The smaller footprint means that there is more volume and X-Y space for other features, such as additional back volume, or additional space for a harp mesh, which provides low frequency performance benefits.
Representatively, in some aspects, the disclosure is directed to a transducer assembly comprising: a frame positioned within an interior chamber defined by an enclosure comprising a port to an ambient environment; a surround comprising a fixed portion sealed to the frame and a movable portion dividing the interior chamber into a front volume chamber coupling a first side of the surround to the port and a back volume chamber coupled to a second side of the surround; and a barometric vent coupled to the fixed portion to vent a pressure between the front volume chamber and the back volume chamber. In some aspects, the fixed portion may include a projection extending radially outward from the movable portion and the barometric vent is coupled to the projection. The movable portion may include a rectangular shape and the projection extends radially outward from a corner of the rectangular shape. In other aspects, the movable portion may include a hexagonal shape and the projection extends radially outward from a side of the hexagonal shape. The projection may extend radially outward from less than an entire perimeter of the movable portion. In some aspects, the barometric vent may include an air permeable membrane covering an opening through the fixed portion of the surround and the frame, and a perimeter of the air permeable membrane is sealed to the fixed portion. In some aspects, the perimeter of the air permeable membrane is sealed to a top side of the fixed portion of the surround, and a bottom side of the fixed portion of the surround directly below the perimeter is sealed to the frame. In some aspects, the barometric vent includes a triangular shape, a rectangular shape, a square shape, an elliptical shape or a racetrack shape. In still further aspects, the movable portion may include a rolled portion that surrounds a piston portion that is operable to vibrate to generate sound. In other aspects, the movable portion is symmetrical about two axes.
In still further aspects, a portable electronic device is disclosed including an enclosure having a top cover and a bottom cover that define an interior chamber and an acoustic port to the interior chamber; a frame positioned within the interior chamber and sealed to the top cover or the bottom cover; a surround comprising a perimeter portion sealed to the frame and a movable portion operable to generate sound that divides the interior chamber into a front volume chamber coupling a first side of the movable portion to the acoustic port and a back volume chamber coupled to a second side of the movable portion; and a barometric vent comprising an air permeable membrane sealed to the perimeter portion to vent a pressure between the front volume chamber and the back volume chamber. In some aspects, the perimeter portion includes a projection extending radially outward from the movable portion and the barometric vent is coupled to the projection. In still further aspects, the movable portion includes a rectangular shape and the projection extends radially outward from a corner of the rectangular shape. In other aspects, the movable portion may include a hexagonal shape and the projection extends radially outward from a side of the hexagonal shape. The projection may extend radially outward from less than an entire perimeter of the movable portion. In some aspects, the barometric vent includes an air permeable membrane covering an opening through the perimeter portion of the surround and the frame, and a perimeter of the air permeable membrane is sealed to the perimeter portion. In some aspects, the perimeter of the air permeable membrane is sealed to a top side of the perimeter portion of the surround, and a bottom side of the fixed portion of the surround directly below the perimeter of the surround is sealed to the frame. In some aspects, the barometric vent includes triangular shape. In still further aspects, the movable portion comprises a rolled portion that surrounds a piston portion that is operable to vibrate to generate sound. The movable portion may further be symmetrical about two axes.
The above summary does not include an exhaustive list of all aspects of the present disclosure. It is contemplated that the disclosure includes all systems and methods that can be practiced from all suitable combinations of the various aspects summarized above, as well as those disclosed in the Detailed Description below and particularly pointed out in the claims filed with the application. Such combinations have particular advantages not specifically recited in the above summary.
The aspects are illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements. It should be noted that references to “an” or “one” aspect in this disclosure are not necessarily to the same aspect, and they mean at least one.
In this section we shall explain several preferred aspects of this disclosure with reference to the appended drawings. Whenever the shapes, relative positions and other aspects of the parts described are not clearly defined, the scope of the disclosure is not limited only to the parts shown, which are meant merely for the purpose of illustration. Also, while numerous details are set forth, it is understood that some aspects of the disclosure may be practiced without these details. In other instances, well-known structures and techniques have not been shown in detail so as not to obscure the understanding of this description.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular aspects only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. Spatially relative terms, such as “beneath”, “below”, “lower”, “above”, “upper”, and the like may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element's or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as “below” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “above” the other elements or features. Thus, the exemplary term “below” can encompass both an orientation of above and below. The device may be otherwise oriented (e.g., rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.
As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising” specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
The terms “or” and “and/or” as used herein are to be interpreted as inclusive or meaning any one or any combination. Therefore, “A, B or C” or “A, B and/or C” mean “any of the following: A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; A, B and C.” An exception to this definition will occur only when a combination of elements, functions, steps or acts are in some way inherently mutually exclusive.
Representatively, in one aspect shown in
In some aspects, surround 112 may further be considered to divide interior chamber 104 into a front volume chamber 104A and a back volume chamber 104B around transducer 108. In the case where transducer 108 is a speaker, front volume chamber 104A may form a chamber having a first volume around the sound output face or top side of surround 112. The front volume chamber 104A (and first volume) may be considered acoustically coupled to, or otherwise open to, acoustic port 106. In this aspect, sound pressure waves output from the top side of surround 112 of transducer 108 may pass through front volume chamber 104A and out to the surrounding ambient environment 120 through acoustic port 106. Back volume chamber 104B may have a second volume and surround the back side of surround 112. Typically, the front volume chamber 104A is substantially sealed from the back volume chamber 104B. It is recognized, however, that in some aspects a size, volume, pressure or other aspects of front volume chamber 104A and/or back volume chamber 104B may impact the acoustic performance of transducer 108. Thus, modifying the size, volume and/or pressure of front volume chamber 104A and/or back volume chamber 104B may be used to tune the acoustic performance of transducer 108. For example, in some cases, it may be desirable to increase a size of the back volume chamber 104B while also equalizing a pressure between front volume chamber 104A and back volume chamber 104B.
With this in mind, a barometric vent 122 between the front and back volume chambers 104A-B may further be provided to help equalize the pressure between the two chambers. In addition, barometric vent 122 may have a particular arrangement and/or configuration that also increases a size of back volume chamber 104B. For example, it is contemplated that in some aspects, barometric vent 122 may be arranged within a footprint of surround 112 and frame 118, instead of outside of surround/frame, such that the additional volume 104C may be part of back volume 104B resulting in an increased back volume. For example, in some aspects, additional volume 104C may be a volume including an acoustically adsorbent material such as a zeolite which may increase low frequency performance when coupled to the back volume 104B.
Representatively, barometric vent 122 will now be described in more detail in reference to
Representatively, in some aspects, membrane 204 may be sealed to a top side of surround perimeter portion 112D using a surround seal 206 (e.g., a glue or other sealing material) that is considered stacked directly above the frame seal 208 along the bottom side of surround portion 112D. Membrane 204 may allow for the passage of air to equalize the pressure between front and back volumes 104A and 104B, while preventing the passage of water between the volumes. Barometric vent 122 may be considered formed by a stack up of frame 118, frame seal 208 sealing surround protrusion 112C to frame 118, and surround seal 206 sealing membrane 204 to surround protrusion 112C. In this aspect, barometric vent 122 may be considered to be within a footprint of frame 118 and does not require or otherwise occupy additional space within front and/or rear volumes 104A-B. Frame 210 may then be sealed to top cover 202A by a further sealing layer 210 (e.g., a glue or other sealing material). It should further be understood that the various sealing layers 206, 208, 210 may extend entirely around the associated components to seal them together and prevent passage of air and/or water therethrough. It should further be understood that surround 112 is a single integrally formed structure including each of the portions 112A-D as previously discussed. In addition, protrusion or extension portion 112C may be understood as extending from only a portion of perimeter portion 112D. In other words, protrusion or extension portion 112C does not extend entirely around protrusion or extension portion 112C.
Representatively, referring now in more detail to surround 112, as can be seen from
Processing circuitry 504 may be used to control the operation of device 500. Processing circuitry 504 may be based on a processor such as a microprocessor and other suitable integrated circuits. With one suitable arrangement, processing circuitry 504 and storage 502 are used to run software on device 500, such as internet browsing applications, voice-over-internet-protocol (VOIP) telephone call applications, email applications, media playback applications, operating system functions, etc. Processing circuitry 504 and storage 502 may be used in implementing suitable communications protocols. Communications protocols that may be implemented using processing circuitry 504 and storage 502 include internet protocols, wireless local area network protocols (e.g., IEEE 802.11 protocols—sometimes referred to as Wi-Fi®), protocols for other short-range wireless communications links such as the Bluetooth® protocol, protocols for handling 3G or 4G communications services (e.g., using wide band code division multiple access techniques), 2G cellular telephone communications protocols, etc.
To minimize power consumption, processing circuitry 504 may include power management circuitry to implement power management functions. For example, processing circuitry 504 may be used to adjust the gain settings of amplifiers (e.g., radio-frequency power amplifier circuitry) on device 500. Processing circuitry 504 may also be used to adjust the power supply voltages that are provided to portions of the circuitry on device 500. For example, higher direct-current (DC) power supply voltages may be supplied to active circuits and lower DC power supply voltages may be supplied to circuits that are less active or that are inactive. If desired, processing circuitry 504 may be used to implement a control scheme in which the power amplifier circuitry is adjusted to accommodate transmission power level requests received from a wireless network.
Input-output devices 506 may be used to allow data to be supplied to device 500 and to allow data to be provided from device 500 to external devices. Display screens, microphone acoustic ports, speaker acoustic ports, and docking ports are examples of input-output devices 506. For example, input-output devices 506 can include user input-output devices 508 such as buttons, touch screens, joysticks, click wheels, scrolling wheels, touch pads, keypads, keyboards, microphones, cameras, etc. A user can control the operation of device 500 by supplying commands through user input devices 508. Display and audio devices 510 may include liquid-crystal display (LCD) screens or other screens, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and other components that present visual information and status data. Display and audio devices 510 may also include audio equipment such as speakers and other devices for creating sound. Display and audio devices 510 may contain audio-video interface equipment such as jacks and other connectors for external headphones and monitors.
Wireless communications devices 512 may include communications circuitry such as radiofrequency (RF) transceiver circuitry formed from one or more integrated circuits, power amplifier circuitry, passive RF components, antennas, and other circuitry for handling RF wireless signals. Wireless signals can also be sent using light (e.g., using infrared communications). Representatively, in the case of a speaker acoustic port, the speaker may be associated with the port and be in communication with an RF antenna for transmission of signals from the far end user to the speaker.
Returning to
Computing equipment 516 may be any suitable computer. With one suitable arrangement, computing equipment 516 is a computer that has an associated wireless access point (router) or an internal or external wireless card that establishes a wireless connection with device 500. The computer may be a server (e.g., an internet server), a local area network computer with or without internet access, a user's own personal computer, a peer device (e.g., another portable electronic device), or any other suitable computing equipment.
Wireless network 518 may include any suitable network equipment, such as cellular telephone base stations, cellular towers, wireless data networks, computers associated with wireless networks, etc. For example, wireless network 518 may include network management equipment that monitors the wireless signal strength of the wireless handsets (cellular telephones, handheld computing devices, etc.) that are in communication with network 518.
While certain aspects have been described and shown in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that such aspects are merely illustrative of and not restrictive on the broad disclosure, and that the disclosure is not limited to the specific constructions and arrangements shown and described, since various other modifications may occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. The description is thus to be regarded as illustrative instead of limiting. For example, although a speaker is specifically disclosed herein, the vent disclosed herein could be used with other types of transducers, for example, microphones. Still further, although a portable electronic device such as a mobile communications device is described herein, any of the previously discussed valve and transducer configurations may be implemented within a tablet computer, personal computer, laptop computer, notebook computer, headphones and the like. In addition, to aid the Patent Office and any readers of any patent issued on this application in interpreting the claims appended hereto, applicants wish to note that they do not intend any of the appended claims or claim elements to invoke 35 U.S.C. 112(f) unless the words “means for” or “step for” are explicitly used in the particular claim.
