A MEMS microphone from Vesper is said to have the highest acoustic performance of any commercially available MEMS microphone. The company says the VM101 solves some of the performance issues facing those manufacturing consumer products by enhancing the quality and clarity of audio in a range of devices.
"Voice is expected to supplant touch as the dominant user interface in consumer products," said Vesper's CEO Matt Crowley. "This makes higher performance MEMS microphones increasingly critical because they are right at the beginning of the audio signal chain. But today's MEMS microphones are versions of something developed in the 1950s."
According to Vesper, the VM101 has an SNR of 68dB, compared to the 65dB SNR of current high end capacitive MEMS microphones. The higher SNR is said by Crowley to improve far field audio performance. "Many people post videos online," he said, "but sound quality is bad. The higher SNR is like 'audio zoom', if you can capture sound at a distance, it will be of higher quality."
The VM101 is said to turn on in less than 10µs, making it suited to 'always on' applications. Alongside a typical SNR of 68dB, the device consumes 150µA.
Looking to the future, Crowley anticipates improving the performance of Vesper's MEMS microphones by '2 to 3db per year' until it reaches 80dB.
Pic: The VM101 pictured on a US 10cent coin
Author
Graham Pitcher
Source: www.newelectronics.co.uk