Pure silicon-based speakers usher in performance breakthroughs, ready to be introduced to the market

Arioso Systems GmbH, a spin-off company from the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems, is planning to commercialize a 100% silicon microspeaker. After obtaining successful seed funding, Arioso Systems GmbH is now ready to bring this technology to the market.

Micro-speaker technology based on micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) has been developed for many years. It is based on what Fraunhofer calls a nano-electrostatic driver, which embeds a row of 20-micron-wide curved bands in the body of the silicon chip. The electrostatic actuators in these slats will react to the audio signal voltage, and the subsequent vibration will occur in the form of sound. The purpose is to reproduce high-fidelity sound, so this design can be a good substitute for the electric power in wireless headphones. speaker.

Compared with the traditional design, the advantages of this method include: improved energy efficiency, and the overall footprint is much smaller, which means that there may be space inside the in-ear wireless headset to accommodate a micro data processor and antenna, eliminating the need for a smart phone Or other devices can go online and interact with voice services.

A battery-powered demonstration system was developed last year, which produces a sound pressure greater than 100dB. This concept was published in a paper in the scientific journals “Nature Microsystems” and “Nanoengineering”, and then the research team began to study amplifier drive circuits .

Arioso Systems’ chips are based on CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide semiconductor) manufacturing processes, which account for more than 90% of global MEMS production, making micro speakers an ideal choice for mass production. Now that the first round of financing has been completed, the company has attracted 2.6 million euros (approximately US$2.84 million) in funding and will focus on the development of voice Internet application technology.