Electroacoustic transducer comprising a memberane with a middle area comprising stiffening grooves

• US 20060070796A1
• Filed: 10/31/2003
• Published: 04/06/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sound Solutions International Company, Ltd. (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Frasl, Ewald
• Granted Patent: US 7,306,073 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 181/173
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 7/14 corrugated, pleated or ribbed

Abstract

A membrane (20) has a membrane axis (5) and a middle area (50), a central cup-shaped depression (52) being provided around said membrane axis (5), which depression (52) preferably has a connecting channel (53), wherein the middle area (50) comprises groups of stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56, 57) which extend parallel to radial directions and of which a first group of long stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56) extends up to the depression (52), said connecting channel (53) issuing into two of the long stiffening grooves (55, 56), thus interconnecting these two long stiffening grooves (55, 56).

Claims

1. A membrane (20) for an electroacoustic transducer (1), which membrane (20) is designed to be capable of vibration with respect to a membrane axis (5), and which has a first membrane side (20a) and a second membrane side (20b), and which has a middle area (50),

wherein a central cup-shaped depression (52) is present in the region of the membrane axis (5), which depression (52) is bounded by a cup bottom wall (52a) and is open towards the first membrane side (20a),

wherein the membrane (20) has stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56, 57) in its middle area (50) which stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56, 57) extend substantially parallel to radial directions, and

wherein at least two stiffening grooves (55, 56) of said stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56, 57) extend up to the depression (52).

2. A membrane (20) as claimed in claim 1, wherein all stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56, 57) are open towards the second membrane side (20b).

3. A membrane (20) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the depression (52) has a connecting channel (53), which connecting channel (53) is open towards the second membrane side (20b) and leads into the two stiffening grooves (55, 56) that extend up to the depression (52).

4. A membrane (20) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56, 57) are angularly regularly spaced in circumferential direction.

5. A membrane (20) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56, 57) are arranged in at least two groups of stiffening grooves, such that the stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56) of a first group extend up to the depression (52), and the stiffening grooves (57) of a second group terminate before reaching the depression (52).

6. A membrane (20) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56, 57) extend with their ends facing away from the depression (52) up to an annular intermediate portion (22) of the membrane (20).

7. A membrane (20) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56, 57) extend linearly.

8. A membrane (20) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56, 57) each have groove side walls (58, 59) which are substantially parallel to one another.

9. A membrane (20) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56, 57) have a substantially U-shaped cross-section.

10. A membrane (20) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the connecting channel (53) has a cross-section smaller than the cross-section of the stiffening grooves (54, 55, 56, 57).

11. An electroacoustic transducer (1) having a membrane (20), wherein the transducer (1) is provided with a membrane (20) as claimed in claim 1.