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COVER STORY:
The Growing Importance of
Innovative MEMS Microphones
PAGE 14
14 EE|Times EUROPE

COVER STORY

The Growing Importance

of Innovative MEMS
Microphones
By Julian Kornprobst, Product Marketing Specialist, Infineon Technologies AG, and
Somu Goswami, Technical Marketing Specialist, Infineon Technologies AG

Microphone technology is
becoming increasingly important
as audio applications and
features proliferate. Different
factors have to be considered
for a variety of applications,
ranging from audio quality to
water and dust robustness to
size and cost. Infineon offers
a portfolio of XENSIV™ MEMS
microphones that ranges from
low-cost models to products that
deliver the highest performance
levels.
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The Growing Importance of Innovative MEMS Microphones

V
oice is set to replace buttons in the
future as a means of intuitively
interacting with the environment
around us. Reaching beyond con-
ventional audio devices such as phones and
recorders, voice control is now being incor-
porated into billions of other devices. Sensors
such as MEMS microphones are key enablers
of the trend toward human-machine com-
munication. According to a report published
by SAR Insight,1 nearly 6 billion devices are
expected to have voice interfaces supporting
features such as voice triggers, voice biomet-
rics, and embedded digital assistants by 2023.
The current Covid-19 crisis has highlighted
two areas where high-performance micro-
phones can play a key role in developing
sophisticated solutions: online meetings with
high-quality audio and health tracking.
Many people are working from home
because of the coronavirus pandemic. As a
result, video conferencing has become the
main way for employees to communicate with
their colleagues. In these situations, advanced
audio features can help reduce the perceived
distance between friends and colleagues. Figure 1: Video conferences benefit from improved audio quality based on high-
Teams all over the world are using advanced performance microphones.
video conference systems (Figure 1) to
communicate more effectively — something
that is particularly important in times when by wires. Instead, they are connected over Bluetooth. Like their larger,
people are not able to meet in person. over-ear cousins, TWS earbuds are equipped with a range of audio
High-quality video and audio are vital for ensuring that online meet- features in which microphones, once again, play a key role.
ings are efficient and convenient. If you think back to your last Skype Active noise cancellation (ANC), for example, was originally devel-
or Zoom video call, what was more important: seeing your colleagues oped to reduce the static noise of engines on flights. Nowadays, more
or hearing them? In terms of poor quality, what would bother you powerful algorithms and better microphones have pushed ANC beyond
more: a blurry image or only hearing a part of each word? Audio often the world of travel, enabling users to eliminate background noise and
is noticed only when it is poor quality. And once we are used to good voices in the office or at home. It is even a feature in today’s TWS
quality, nothing else will do. The main goal here is to ensure that each headsets. Beamforming with microphone arrays enables people to have
speaker’s voice is reproduced as naturally as possible. clear conversations, whether they are working from home or in a noisy
A new class of high-performance microphones is paving the way for environment.
smarter video calls and a host of other features. Smart cameras can pan Headphones, by design, isolate wearers from the outside world.
and zoom in on people and objects to keep up with the action. They While this can provide valuable passive isolation from annoying
can also automatically pivot to keep everyone in view. Smart sound sounds, it is not always convenient. In many situations, we also want to
enhances the voice of the person talking while minimizing background hear what’s going on around us without having to remove our devices
noise. To improve performance levels, high-performance MEMS micro- — for instance, to tune in to announcements in train stations, pick
phones are increasingly combined with advanced audio processing up on surrounding sounds while running in a park, or talk to others.
functions such as blind source separation or beamforming to localize Transparent hearing modes have been developed that enable users to
the position of the user and blur out the background sounds. Today’s create blended augmented audio experiences by telling their high-
video conference systems are fully integrated units that include a performance microphones how much of the outside sound environ-
codec, display, camera microphones, and loudspeakers. ment they wish to capture. Sound is picked up just before it enters the
ears and is altered and played back in real time, creating a transparent,
RISING DEMAND FOR HIGH-QUALITY AUDIO augmented hearing experience. Some manufacturers provide smart
High-quality video conferencing is no longer limited to the business features, such as the automatic activation of transparent hearing when
world. The need to communicate with family and friends — be it in the wearer’s name is called. In the future, it may be possible for micro-
a “virtual happy hour” or digital Easter celebration — has led to the phones to be activated automatically when they detect an approaching
emergence of a number of new tools. New consumer devices such as car or a boarding announcement in an airport, for instance.
Facebook’s Portal, which combines video and audio features, all benefit While transparent hearing is a first step toward emulating human
from high-performance microphones that offer a high-quality audio ears, the experience can be taken one step further with 360° audio
experience. Other new applications are also being developed. Robots recordings. This technology involves equipping earbuds with micro-
that can communicate with people in hospitals or retirement homes, phones that have a low noise floor. The wearer can then use these
for example, already exist today. Better sensors will make these inter- earbuds to record sound experiences such as concerts in 360° audio.
actions increasingly natural. In recent years, true wireless stereo (TWS) This creates an immersive experience that can be played back and
earbuds have emerged as a new device category in the field of hear- relived later or shared with friends. The listener feels like they are
ables. TWS earbuds are not connected to each other or an audio source actually at the concert; without any hiss noise, the recording cannot

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The Growing Importance of Innovative MEMS Microphones

The FluSense solution captures

crowd-level non-speech body sounds
such as coughs in an unobtrusive and
passive manner, combining this data with
patient counts estimated using thermal
images taken in hospital waiting rooms.
Together, these elements provide key
predictive information on epidemiolog-
ical trends for a given demographic. The
FluSense platform processes low-cost
microphone array and thermal imaging
data at the edge using a Raspberry Pi
and a neural computing engine (the
Intel Movidius). None of the information
stored is personally identifiable.
The solution can run deep-learning–
based acoustic models and algorithms for
estimating crowd sizes based on thermal
imaging in real time. The system can
detect coughs with an accuracy of up to
87%. The developers now aim to validate
the model in non-clinical settings such
as restaurants, public transportation, and
classrooms. High-performance micro-
Figure 2: High-performance microphones are vital in a wide range of voice-control features phones could increase detection rates
and applications. further under such conditions.

be distinguished from the real thing. Microphones are vital MICROPHONE PERFORMANCE
for providing the high-quality input that all of the applications Taking a closer look at microphone performance, there are several
mentioned here need in order to deliver an outstanding user factors to take into consideration: What are high-performance micro-
experience and excellent audio quality (Figure 2). MEMS micro- phones? Which microphone parameters are important and which ones
phones with best-in-class audio quality specifications can deliver are relevant for different use cases? Every microphone is capable of
the required performance. recording a range of sound pressure levels (SPLs); this is known as the
dynamic range of a microphone. The upper limit of the dynamic range
HEALTH TRACKING is defined as the acoustic overload point (AOP), while the lower limit
Monitoring vital signs with optical sensors is an established tech- is defined by the microphone’s self-noise. A microphone can pick up
nology. In some instances, however, space constraints limit the use only signals with an SPL above its self-noise. This lower threshold is
of existing sensors. One way to save space here is to combine several known as the “noise floor” of a microphone, and it defines the signal-
sensors — creating, for example, a microphone that can also monitor to-noise ratio (SNR). A microphone cannot record any sound below its
body temperature. Health tracking is a growing market for mobile noise floor. A microphone with a noise floor of 30 dB SPL, for example,
devices. Tracking applications will become more appealing as users cannot capture a human whisper at 25 dB SPL amplitude. Therefore,
become more health-conscious. High-performance microphones with microphones with a higher SNR (i.e., a lower noise floor) are well suited
ANC can be combined with body temperature sensors to provide a to picking up low-amplitude audio signals.
useful solution for tracking health and detecting a high temperature. SNR and AOP are important parameters for assessing individual
A TWS headset with the ability to track the wearer’s temperature and microphone performance. However, most devices today use several
issue a warning at the onset of a fever provides peace of mind; users microphones in an array. Smartphones, for example, have three or four
can rest assured that their health is being monitored. Detecting fevers microphones, while TWS incorporates up to six microphones (three per
at an early stage means that treatment can be started promptly. Having earbud). The numbers are even higher in conference systems. In short,
a record of a patient’s body temperature can also help with diagno- microphone arrays can contain anywhere from two to 32 microphones.
sis and treatment. Infineon has developed an ASIC that features an The performance of a microphone array depends on a combination of
I²C temperature sensor. Combining this with the MEMS produces a individual microphone characteristics and combined array characteristics.
high-performance microphone with temperature-sensing functionality The individual characteristics include the AOP and SNR, while the com-
— a solution that saves space by combining the two sensors. bined array characteristics include factors such as sensitivity matching
(whether all mics have almost the same sensitivity) and phase matching
INNOVATIVE APPLICATION EXAMPLE: FLUSENSE (whether all mics have a similar phase response). These features combine
An innovative device invented in the U.S. at the University of to improve overall audio capture and to ensure that the array produces
Massachusetts Amherst demonstrates the possibilities of using micro- higher-quality sound and has lower self-noise levels — comparable in
phones in medical tracking (https://www.umass.edu/gateway/feature/ many ways to watching a movie in normal resolution or full HD.
flusense). Designed to analyze coughing and detect crowd sizes, the Flu-
Sense device is made up of three components: a camera, a microphone, THE IMPORTANCE OF HIGH-QUALITY AUDIO RAW DATA
and a computer (Figure 3). The challenge for the developers was to Virtual assistants like Siri and Alexa are voice user interfaces (VUIs)
find an early way to predict and monitor the outbreak of influenza-like present in smart speakers. VUIs comprise an array of microphones
illnesses — characterized by key symptoms such as fever and coughing that are used to capture higher-quality raw audio data as input for the
— as feeding lab-confirmed cases into epidemic models takes time. application processor. The raw data input from high-SNR

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The Growing Importance of Innovative MEMS Microphones

AOP is key for undistorted concert music recordings

and echo cancellation when a microphone is placed
close to a speaker. Good phase matching is important
for microphone arrays and improving the performance
of beamforming algorithms. In other words, if you are
building a system that has to perform beamforming,
pick up audio from a distance, and cancel echoes,
you need an array of microphones with all of the
above-mentioned features.
In addition to providing all of the audio parame-
ters for the use cases mentioned above, microphones
should be robust against water and dust. They must
also work within their specifications under variations
in temperature, humidity, pressure, and other environ-
mental factors. In an ideal world, microphones would
not generate any self-noise at all but would emulate the
human ear, which has an extremely low noise floor. In
reality, however, there are technical limitations defined
by physics. There are typically four noise contributors
in MEMS microphone systems: the MEMS itself, the
Figure 3: FluSense is an innovative concept for monitoring influenza trends. It ASIC, the package, and its sound port. The highest noise
combines a microphone array with a camera to analyze coughing and patient contributor for state-of-the-art microphones used in
counts. (Image: University of Massachusetts) smartphones is the MEMS component. Infineon has
improved the MEMS component, pushing the boundar-
ies of MEMS microphone performance beyond even the
microphones contains more information and less self-noise, which current best-in-class dual-backplate technology. The company’s efforts
makes the subsequent processing on the edge processor and in the here culminated in the development of Infineon’s innovative, patented
cloud more efficient. Better raw audio data input results in a higher sealed dual-membrane (SDM) MEMS technology.
hit rate, lower false acceptance instances, and, subsequently, a lower
error rate for system wakeup. In short, having better microphones in A LOOK INSIDE A MEMS MICROPHONE
your smart speaker means that the next time you ask it a question, you Before explaining how the new SDM works, it makes sense to take a
won’t have to repeat yourself. quick look at the inside of a MEMS microphone and see what challenges
In general, each acoustic parameter has its own importance and the different components have to overcome to deliver the best perfor-
enables certain specific use cases (Figure 4). High SNR, for example, is mance. A typical design combines a MEMS sensor and an ASIC. MEMS
important for picking up distant and whispered voices in smart speak- microphones extract audio pressure changes as electrical signals. The
ers, video conferencing devices, and similar far-field applications. A ASIC then processes these signals either in differential analog or in
study conducted by Infineon showed that higher-SNR microphones can digital format at the output. The first challenge is handling the pressure
capture whisper audio 40% better than standard microphones. High levels of loud sounds, as they produce large mechanical movements in

Figure 4: High-performance microphones are characterized by a number of different parameters.

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The Growing Importance of Innovative MEMS Microphones

the membrane. These kinds of extreme membrane dis-

placements cause distortion. The second challenge is
to design an ASIC capable of handling the large signal
that the MEMS element generates. As audio-process-
ing algorithms assume a linear signal, any distortions
above 1% can cause a significant reduction of the audio
quality on which advanced audio processing relies.
One approach is to implement a MEMS sensor
element that places the moving membrane between
two capacitor plates (dual backplate, or DBP). A DBP
MEMS microphone minimizes distortion due to its
symmetrical construction. The same effect is achieved
by moving two membranes that sandwich the capaci-
tor plate (dual membrane).

SEALED DUAL-MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY Figure 5: MEMS microphones with robust sealed dual-membrane technology
The introduction of DBP technology has produced a (SDM) set the SNR and AOP benchmarks.
significant increase in linearity specifications com-
pared with MEMS microphones with a single backplate.
The next evolutionary step is capacitive MEMS microphones with an quality to water and dust robustness to size and cost. Infineon offers a
SDM. Sealing the capacitance area enables practically noise-free audio portfolio of XENSIV™ MEMS microphones that ranges from low-cost
signal capture. This increases the SNR further, from 70 dB up to 75 dB models to products that deliver the highest performance levels. Devices
(Figure 5). The first prototypes have already achieved an SNR of 75 dB with a single backplate are robust and cost-effective but have lim-
and an AOP of 135 dB SPL. The first devices in this new generation have ited acoustic performance, whereas MEMS devices with DBP provide
already been used to demonstrate the advanced audio features discussed improved acoustics. SDM technology combines the highest acoustic
above. By the end of 2020, Infineon will introduce further shrunk-sealed performance (SNR up to 75 dB) with high robustness (IP 57). SDM
dual-membrane microphones targeted at space-constrained devices. MEMS microphones with best-in-class SNR are robust against dust
and water and are the ideal choice for emerging applications such as
CONCLUSION high-quality video/audio conferencing and medical tracking. ■
Microphone technology is becoming increasingly important as the
number of audio applications and features rise. Different factors have REFERENCES:
to be considered for a variety of applications, ranging from audio 1
Digital and Voice Interface Forecast, October 2018

NEWS
Imagination Inquiry Exposes IC Unit Shipments
Wider Risk of IP Sales to China Face First-Ever
Imagination Technologies’ now-defunct defended their business strategies. Imagi- Back-to-Back Decline
plan to add four Chinese investors to its nation’s revenue has steadily declined since
executive board has touched a raw nerve 2017, and its recovery path has pitted former Market researcher IC Insights forecasts that
in the U.K. and triggered a series of events CEOs Hossein Yassaie and Ron Black, as well worldwide IC unit shipments will register
leading to a full-blown government inquiry. as former senior executive John Rayfield, their first-ever back-to-back annual decline
In a three-hour hearing before the U.K. against interim CEO Ray Bingham, who in 2020. Prior to 2019, the previous four years
Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, favored the involvement of Chinese backers. that IC unit shipments declined were 1985,
three Imagination CEOs, past and present, None of the issues were resolved. The 2001, 2009, and 2012. From 2013 through
were grilled in a public battle to preserve committee tried to unravel the drama that 2018, IC unit shipments were on a respect-
the IP developer’s legacy. The public debate sparked the questions — the departure of able growth path, with an 8% increase logged
centered on the suitability of Imagination Black and Rayfield as well as former senior in 2013, a 9% jump registered in 2014, a 5%
owner Canyon Bridge Partners’ recent executive Steve Evans — and fears that increase displayed in 2015, a 7% increase
attempt to add new Chinese directors to Imagination would relocate to China. shown in 2016, a double-digit growth rate of
the board and the government’s role — if The bigger picture — IP licensing and 15% in 2017, and a 10% increase in 2018.
any — in protecting home-grown intellec- security risks represented by China — isn’t In contrast to the double-digit increases
tual property (IP). unique to the U.K. Electronics companies in 2017 and 2018, 2019 marked only the fifth
Tech industry executives watched the live view the lucrative Chinese electronics market time in the history of the IC industry that IC
online event as factions within Imagina- as fiscal salvation; governments greet China’s unit shipments registered a decline, according
tion’s past and present senior leadership foreign-investment plans with suspicion. to IC Insights.

JUNE 2020 | www.eetimes.eu