New Piezo Sounder Driver for Bluetooth Location Trackers and Haptic Feedback Devices from Diodes

Diodes introduced a new 22VPP/31VPP selectable output piezoelectric sounder driver, for maximizing sound pressure level (SPL) delivery from a ceramic/piezo sounder. The PAM8907 has a built-in synchronous boost converter, which extends SPL in battery-powered systems and outperforms other similar sounder drivers. The device is optimized for use in wireless trackers, alarm systems, domestic appliances, or ultrasonic related piezo driver applications and haptic feedback.

Flexound Augmented Audio, the company from Finland that is exploring the full combined potential of haptics and wireless audio in consumer products, is also developing multisensory solutions for cinema, gaming and therapy. After exploring the technology in commercial movie theaters, Flexound now introduced the Pulse seat that offers an affordable and captivating home cinema experience, scaling easily to large multi-seat rooms.

In the first part of this article, our exploration of bass shakers introduced us to haptic sensations, which add the dimension of structure-borne vibrational energy to audio reproduction. At a concert, we see the performers, hear the music, and feel the amphitheater resonate with the bass. For home theaters, this “tactile” component adds another dimension (sometimes referred to as 4-D) to reproduce the impact of explosions, engine sounds, and thunder through by use of vibration. In this article we will focus directly on those haptic components. This article was originally published in audioXpress, May 2014.

With the goal of elevating the user experience for a wide range of consumer devices, Cirrus Logic is leveraging its low-power, low-latency mixed-signal processing technology to develop an advanced product portfolio of haptic and sensing integrated circuits (ICs) that enable increased functionality and sleek buttonless designs for smartphones, PCs, wearables, gaming, virtual reality and automotive applications. Cirrus Logic’s haptic products and sophisticated haptic feedback technology enable sleeker, more robust end products with fewer mechanical controls for new responsive and immersive user experiences.

Lightweight and flexible, piezoelectric film transducers can serve as highly reliable low-cost alternatives to more expensive speakers, headphones, microphones, and even musical instrument sound pickups. This second article about the technology focuses precisely on the many other successful applications of this technology. We can only hope that this article will serve as a reintroduction to the technology. This article was originally published in audioXpress May 2013.