Condenser microphone with small size and high sensitivity Using a circular diaphragm with fixed center

Subject Areas : Semiconductor devices

Nastaran Nademi ¹ , Javad Karamdel ²

1 - Islamic Azad University, south Tehran Branch
2 - Islamic Azd University, South Tehran Branch

Received: 2015-05-05 Accepted : 2015-12-19 Published : 2016-01-21

Keywords: Pull-in voltage, Electrostatic, condenser microphone, audio converter, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS),

Abstract :

In this paper, a new single-chip MEMS capacitor microphone on a silicon wafer by minimizing the size and the reduction of mechanical strength using a circular diaphragm with a fixed center is proposed. In the proposed microphone, the diaphragm includes a number of holes to pass the air through the gap between the back plate and diaphragm, and thus reduces the damping of the sound from the microphone. Novelty of this method, creating a circular microphone with fixed center, which the diameter of diaphragm is less than the conventional condenser microphone. At first, the mechanical analysis was conducted on microphone diaphragm in order to achieve the pull-in voltage. The pull-in voltage of the proposed circular microphone is 14 volts. According to the obtained pull-in voltage, the bias voltage were applied to the microphone, and various parameters such as capacitance and sensitivity were measured. Based on the simulation results of COMSOL, the proposed microphone with diaphragm diameter of 400 μm and a thickness of 1.5 μm, the sensitivity of -23 dB is shown. In comparison with previous works, the proposed microphone with lower supply voltage is provided the better frequency performance, and higher sensitivity, in order to sense the sound.

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