Three-stage Nonlinear Thermal Model for Microspeakers in Mobile Phones

Since microspeakers are widely used in mobile phones,high power is usually applied to obtain sufficient output sound pressure.However,the electric power is almost converted into heat,leading to the thermal problem in microspeakers.Compared with large loudspeaker,microspeakers are smaller and the under yoke is relatively closed,causing the heat transfer more complex.In this study,a three-stage nonlinear thermal model was proposed for analyzing the thermal behavior in microspeakers.The inside air is a buffer area between the voice coil and magnet,and modeled as a middle stage of the heat transfer.The forced convection is still significant in microspeakers while the eddy current can be ignored.In order to obtain the thermal parameters of the model,a corresponding parameter identification method was put forward.The basic linear parameters and forced convection parameters were all obtained by measuring and fitting the temperature curves of voice coil at different single tones.A series of experiments were conducted to verify the proposed model and parameter identification method,and the results showed good aggrement between the measured and predicted temperature curves for different input signals.The proposed model was valid and accurate,and may be helpful for the design and application of microspeakers.

Perception of Nonlinear Distortion in Music Signals Reproduced by Microspeakers

A lot of work has focused on compensating nonlinear distortions ofthe microspeaker under large excitation, yet it is unclear at which levelthe effect of nonlinear distortion is imperceptible or not annoying. Inthis study virtual listening tests were performed to evaluate thedeterioration of sound quality in music signals with different levels ofnonlinear distortion by a microspeaker. Binaural recordings of themusic played by the microspeaker were made at different voltagelevels, adjusted to the same RMS power, and afterwards reproducedby a low distortion reference headphone. The “double-blind triple-stimuluswith hidden reference” method was used in the listening tests. Listenerswere required to not only discern the distortion, but also rank theseverity of the distortion. The effects of several factors includingsubject, program material and distortion level on the perceiveddistortion are discussed.

Piezoelectric bimorph MEMS speakers

One of the key requirements for MEMS speakers is to increase the sound pressure level(SPL)while keeping the size as small as possible.In this paper we present a MEMS speaker based on piezoelectric bimorph cantilevers that produces a higher SPL than conventional unimorph cantilever speakers.The active diaphragm size is 1.4×1.4 mm^(2).The bimorph cantilevers are connected in parallel to make full use of the actuation voltage.At 1 kHz,the measured SPL reached 73 dB and the peak SPL reached 102 dB at the resonance frequency of 10 kHz in a 711 ear simulator under a driving voltage of 10 V_(rms).The total harmonic distortion of the MEMS speaker was less than 3%in the range from 100 Hz to 20 kHz.Although the absolute SPL was not the highest,this work provides a better SPL for all piezoelectric MEMS speakers.