MEMS directional sensor system
First Claim
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1. An apparatus comprising:
- a support structure;
at least two MEMS acoustic sensors mounted on the support structure, each of the sensors adapted for receiving an acoustic signal from a source and producing a sensor output signal representative of the received acoustic signal;
a plurality of bandpass acoustic filters coupled between each of the at least two acoustic sensors, each of the filters having a pass band, the pass bands arranged for delaying sensor output signals by several wavelengths over a predetermined range of frequencies; and
processing circuitry coupled to receive sensor output signals from the acoustic sensors and to generate a further signal indicative of a directional heading from the sensors to the source.
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Abstract
A MEMS directional sensor system capable of determining direction from a microphone to a sound source over a wide range of frequencies is disclosed. By utilizing a parallel filter bank that relies on a slow wave structure in a MEMS device, such as described herein, a very small microphone, on the order of a few micrometers, can be designed with unsurpassed ability to detect a sound source location.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
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a support structure;
at least two MEMS acoustic sensors mounted on the support structure, each of the sensors adapted for receiving an acoustic signal from a source and producing a sensor output signal representative of the received acoustic signal;
a plurality of bandpass acoustic filters coupled between each of the at least two acoustic sensors, each of the filters having a pass band, the pass bands arranged for delaying sensor output signals by several wavelengths over a predetermined range of frequencies; and
processing circuitry coupled to receive sensor output signals from the acoustic sensors and to generate a further signal indicative of a directional heading from the sensors to the source. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. An apparatus comprising:
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a support structure;
four MEMS acoustic sensors in a tetrahedral configuration mounted on the support structure, each of the sensors having a diaphragm and adapted for receiving an acoustic signal from a source and producing a sensor output signal representative of the received acoustic signal;
a plurality of bandpass acoustic filters coupled between each of four MEMS acoustic sensors, each of the filters having a pass band, the pass bands arranged for delaying sensor output signals by several wavelengths over a predetermined range of frequencies; and
processing circuitry coupled to receive sensor output signals from the acoustic sensors and to generate a further signal indicative of a directional heading from the sensors to the source. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17)
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18. A system comprising:
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a support structure;
at least two MEMS acoustic sensors mounted on the support structure, each of the sensors adapted for an receiving an acoustic signal from a source and producing a sensor output signal representative of the received acoustic signal;
a plurality of bandpass acoustic filters coupled between each of the at least two acoustic sensors, each of the filters having a pass band, the pass bands arranged for delaying sensor output signals by several wavelengths over a predetermined range of frequencies;
processing circuitry coupled to receive sensor output signals from the acoustic sensors and to generate a further signal indicative of a directional heading from the sensors to the source; and
a transceiver coupled to the at least two MEMS acoustic sensors. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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21. A method comprising:
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detecting acoustic energy from a sound source using at least two acoustic sensors residing on a support structure, the sound source having frequencies ranging from subsonic to supersonic bandwidths; and
utilizing a slow wave structure in a filter bank coupled to the at least two acoustic sensors to create a time delay at all frequencies to produce shifted frequencies, further wherein off-frequency filters reject the shifted frequencies; and
processing a signal from the filter bank to determine directional attributes of the acoustic energy. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23)
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24. A method comprising:
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receiving a first acoustic signal from a sound source with a first acoustic sensor and a second acoustic signal from the sound source with a second acoustic sensor;
producing a first sensor electrical output signal representative of the first received acoustic signal in the first acoustic sensor and a second sensor electrical output signal representative of the second received acoustic signal in the second acoustic sensor;
sending the first and second sensor electrical output signals directly to a signal processor;
sending the first and second acoustic signals to an array of pass band filters, wherein the first and second acoustic signals are each delayed to produce first and second delayed acoustic signals;
receiving the first delayed acoustic signal with the second acoustic sensor and the second delayed acoustic signal with the first acoustic sensor;
in the second acoustic sensor, producing a second sensor delayed electrical output signal representative of the received first delayed acoustic signal;
in the first acoustic sensor, producing a first sensor delayed electrical output signal representative of the received second delayed acoustic signal; and
sending the first and second sensor delayed electrical output signals to the signal processor. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26)
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Specification