Cirrus Logic Senior Technical Fellow John Melanson Awarded 500th US Patent

John Melanson, senior technical fellow at Cirrus Logic, has been granted his 500th US patent, an achievement that places him among the world’s most prolific inventors. The Academy Award-winning engineer’s core contributions are within the field of audio and electronics, particularly the analog and mixed-signal technologies that have helped transform the analog world around us into the digital signals at the heart of today’s most advanced products.

Asahi Kasei Microdevices (AKM) has resumed sample shipments of 13 Velvet Sound D/A converters (DAC) and A/D converters (ADC) products - all part of a new generation of improved devices. The samples start shipping in January 2022. Mass production is scheduled for the third quarter of 2022. The new range of devices include new 115dB and 768kHz 32-bit DACs in 2, 4, 6, and 8-channel models, plus nine new 32-bit ADCs in 2, 4, and 8 channel models including the AK5522 ADC, ideal for bus-powered USB audio interfaces.

Asahi Kasei Microdevices Corporation (AKM) has expanded its lineup of premium audio Digital-to-Analog converters (DACs) with the development of a two-chip solution that separates the digital aspect from the analog. While conventional DACs use a single chip to convert signals from digital to analog, the new AKM approach splits the conversion process between the AK4191 delta-sigma modulator and the AK4498 DAC. This results in an improvement in sound quality that is easily perceptible while listening to music, the company states.