Scaling up the world’s highest performance MEMS microphone

Project Information

OptiMEMS2

Grant agreement ID: 953378

DOI

10.3030/953378

Project closed

EC signature date 5 June 2020

Start date 1 May 2020

End date 31 October 2022

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 4 669 046,25

EU contribution

€ 2 500 000,00

Coordinated by

SENSIBEL AS
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - OptiMEMS2 (Scaling up the world’s highest performance MEMS microphone)

Reporting period: 2021-05-01 to 2022-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

For decades, microphones have worked based on the same principles and with small incremental performance improvements. The dominating technology for high-volume products is small capacitive MEMS microphones, with multi-billion € markets, but their sensitivity is not sufficient to handle voice and sound capture in complex environments, to enable noise-free ANC headsets and their performance is not sufficient for products demanding true studio-quality audio recordings.
Professional grade “studio microphones” used by recording studios, podcasters etc. have sufficient performance, however, they are large in size, i.e. can’t fit the products where MEMS microphones dominate.
The main objective of this project was to miniaturize and integrate all components of the optical microphone and transfer the technology to high-volume manufacturing partners to enable true studio-quality microphone performance in is small MEMS package.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

sensiBel has successfully miniaturized all component of the optical MEMS microphone and integrated them in a small package with digital output. An ASIC has been implemented for processing of the optical signals and for interfacing with a host processor. The optical subsystem of the microphone has been optimized to enable low power consumption, which is important in battery operated systems. The microphone components are manufactured at high-volume capable partners, and an assembly process has been developed and the microphone is now manufactured on fully automated equipment. The microphone is sampled to lead customers who confirms the performance as advertised.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The sensiBel optical MEMS microphone is the world’s highest performance microphone (lowest self-noise and widest dynamic range) in a small MEMS package. The microphone has been developed using many high-tech semiconductor industry partner in European and as such contributed to development of the competitiveness of the industry overall.
sensiBel reinvented the microphone and are now taking the next steps in the scale-up process.

sensiBel