Method and apparatus for ultra-low power switching microphone
US9602920B2 · kind B2 · utility
0Cited by
0References
24Claims
0Family size
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 20, 2015 |
| Grant date | Mar 21, 2017 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | May 2, 2035 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04R2201/003
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A scheme is described to switch the power supply to the MEMS microphone on and off in a cyclic manner that is synchronized with the associated ADC sampling rate. In this way the MEMS microphone amplifier, whether it is a J-FET transistor or an operational amplifier, is off most of the cycle time, and is turned on only for a few micro-seconds prior to the sample-and-hold timing of the ADC device. By this method, the average power consumption of an existing analog MEMS microphone can be reduced by a factor of 10 or more.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.