xMEMS Piezo Microspeakers - The Future of Direct-to-Consumer Hearing Health Devices

Mike Klasco writes about xMEMS Piezo Microspeakers. How Piezo MEMS Address Development Challenges to Combine the Compact, Consumer-Friendly Form Factor of TWS With Hearing Assistance Features Into a Single Product. How Piezoelectric MEMS Microspeakers devices promise to enhance OTC hearing augmentation solutions, increasing comfort, while adding features and extending battery life. This article was originally published in The Audio Voice newsletter, June 3, 2021 (#330)

Austrian microspeaker company USound is the most advanced MEMS Microspeakers initiative currently in the market. Since announcing a production partnership with STMicroelectronics in 2017, the world's first miniature piezoelectric MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) actuators for smart audio systems in portable devices have become a commercial reality. Targeting multiple possible applications from headsets to high-end speakers and completely new development ideas, USound has announced multiple reference solutions to push the technology forward.

STMicroelectronics and Austrian company USound GmbH announced their collaboration on the industrialization and production of the world's first miniature piezoelectric MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) actuators for smart audio systems in portable devices. The patented micro-speaker technology from USound aims to replace commonly used balanced-armature and electrodynamic receivers for handsets with a small piezo-MEMS actuator.