Mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets or laptops have very challenging space restrictions, and fitting microspeakers is always a challenge for manufacturers. This means complex constraints for developers and for the manufacturers of the microspeakers to provide audio performance improvements. Sound Solutions International (SSI) core competence in microspeakers allows delivering solutions with exceptionally good space to performance ratios. This means getting the highest SPL out of a given space by shifting as much air as possible. To do this, it is key to get a grip on the undesirable membrane rocking modes.
Sound Solutions International (SSI) now offers a new solution to these challenges with the arrival of its latest generation of high excursion microspeakers to the market. New models already available in the Manticore family feature the unique technology Coil-Anchor System (CAS) to reduce rocking on all axis, allowing designs to gain additional sound pressure levels.
The trend in mobile devices with traditional smartphone designs now evolving also to flipped or foldable solutions, is getting thinner with each generation. From a microspeaker vendor perspective this is a very challenging requirement as the available space for the components is minimized even further, while consumer's expectations about the perceived sound quality are getting higher. SSI's latest new series of high excursions speakers featuring CAS allows tackling this contradiction.
For this new generation of microspeakers, SSI refined the piston movement of the membrane in order to shift as much air as possible, while minimizing physical effects like Eigenmodes, which cause the membrane to "rock," resulting in lower sound pressure and increased distortion. SSI achieved an improvement in the membrane's movement by adding a second suspension system (CAS) to "anchor" the coil, and shifting the so-called rocking frequencies so they do not harm the acoustic performance.
The Coil-Anchor System design uses four unique spring elements in the corners, increasing the lateral stiffness on both the long and the short axis of the speaker. This design has multiple advantages. Besides suppressing rocking modes, the spring elements are used as a contact system for the coil itself. This means that SSI was able to remove the wire loops and gain extra space for more magnet material. This not only eliminates the quality risk of breaking wire loops but also enables a higher electrical efficiency of the speaker.
To measure the impact of rocking modes on the performance, SSI monitors sound pressure levels [SPL] defined as "LossSPL". An ideal speaker's piston mode would show a 0dB straight line over the whole frequency range for that parameter. The measurement graph above (Loss SPL core speaker) shows a comparison based on a 12x16 speaker footprint and impressively illustrates a significant SPL gain, achieved by the CAS design. The rocking behavior is heavily impacted by the application, especially by asymmetric air-load like side-firing sound ports. The graph below (Loss SPL box sidefire) shows that the SSI solution is robust against such effects, which enables leveraging the full excursion headroom even in highly restricted applications.
The new generation of Sound Solutions speakers is built on a highly scalable platform, allowing the company to react quickly to different requirements. It can be easily scaled on size, but also on performance with flexible multi-magnet systems. Sound Solutions is currently offering three speaker variants (11x15, 12x16 for smartphones and 13x26 for laptop/tablet applications) in the Manticore family. These speakers achieve up to 1.4mm maximum excursion, peak-peak, leading to exceptional loudness levels and measurable sound quality.
Sound Solutions International has been founded in 2016 but has a long heritage of more than 90 years in developing and manufacturing acoustic components and solutions. SSI is the successor organization of the former Philips Speaker factory in Vienna, Austria, where it operates as a global competence center for mobile acoustic solutions and the company's development and innovation center. For three decades, the company has lead the acoustic component market for mobile devices under different ownerships from Philips, NXP Semiconductors and Knowles Electronics. Since October 2021, Sound Solutions is part of the global Foxconn Group FIT (Foxconn Interconnect Technologies). SSI is headquartered in Zhenjiang, China.
www.sound-solutions.com
