Modelling of silicon condenser microphones

Several models concerning the sensitivity of capacitive pressure sensors have been presented in the past. Modelling of condenser microphones, which can be considered to be a special type of capacitive pressure sensor, usually requires a more complicated analysis of the sensitivity, because they have a strong electric field in the air gap. It is found that the mechanical sensitivity of condenser microphones with a circular diaphragm, either with a large initial tension or without any initial tension, increases with increasing bias voltage (and the corresponding static deflection), whereas the mechanical sensitivity of other capacitive pressure sensors does not depend on the static deflection. It is also found that the mechanical sensitivity increases with increasing input capacitance of a preamplifier. In addition, the open-circuit electrical sensitivity and, consequently, the total sensitivity too, also increases with increasing bias voltage (or static deflection). However, the maximum allowable sound pressure at which the diaphragm collapses, an effect that has to be taken into account, decreases with increasing static deflection in most cases, ulthnately resulting in an optimum value for the bias voltage. The model for microphones with a circular highly tensioned diaphragm has been verified successfully for two microphone types

General considerations of noise in microphone preamplifiers

In this paper a study of the noise performance of electret microphone systems as a part of hearing aids is presented. The signal-to-noise ratio of the microphone-preamplifier combination, containing a field-effect transistor (FET) and a high value resistive bias element in a hybrid configuration, is mainly determined by the noise generated in the preamplifier circuit.\ud \ud A theoretical analysis of the noise sources in a source follower is given. The dominating noise sources are the channel noise of the FET, the thermal noise of the gate bias element, and finally the noise due to the gate leakage current of the FET and its package. It is shown that for the systems investigated, the noise performance does not depend on the choice of the amplifying device (JFET or MOSFET) itself, but only on its packages. Besides this, it is found that it is necessary to keep the parasitic capacitances as small as possible and to make the resistance of the bias element as large as possible

A review of silicon microphones

Silicon micromachining has successfully been applied to fabricate piezoelectric, piezoresistive and capactive microphones. The use of silicon has allowed the fabrication of microphones with integrated electronic circuitry and the development of the new FET microphone. The introduction of lithographic techniques has resulted in microphones with very small (1 mm2) diaphragms and with specially shaped backplates. The application of corrugated diaphragms seems a promising future development for silicon microphones. It is concluded from a noise consideration that the FET microphone shows a high noise level, which is mainly due to the small sensor capacitance. From this noise consideration, it can be shown that integration of a capacitive microphone and a preamplifier will result in a further reduction of the noise

Fabrication of silicon condenser microphones using single wafer technology

A condenser microphone design that can be fabricated using the sacrificial layer technique is proposed and tested. The microphone backplate is a 1-¿m plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor-deposited (PECVD) silicon nitride film with a high density of acoustic holes (120-525 holes/mm2), covered with a thin Ti/Au electrode. Microphones with a flat frequency response between 100 Hz and 14 kHz and a sensitivity of typically 1-2 mV/Pa have been fabricated in a reproducible way. These sensitivities can be achieved using a relatively low bias voltage of 6-16 V. The measured sensitivities and bandwidths are comparable to those of other silicon microphones with highly perforated backplates. The major advantage of the new microphone design is that it can be fabricated on a single wafer so that no bonding techniques are require

Amplitude-modulated electro-mechanical feedback system for silicon condenser microphones

For silicon condenser microphones, narrowing the air gap as a part of the miniaturization process causes a reduction of the bandwidth of the microphone. By introducing an actuator electrode on the diaphragm for electro-mechanical feedback, it is possible to increase the bandwidth of condenser microphones with a narrow air gap. A feedback system is presented, which uses an amplitude-modulated actuator signal with a carrier frequency far above the audio-frequency range. With feedback, the bandwidth of the microphone is increased by at least a factor 10