DIGITAL MICROPHONE NOISE ATTENUATION

• US 20200135164A1
• Filed: 12/31/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2017
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: Knowles Electronics Llc (Knowles Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Knowles Electronics Llc (Knowles Corporation)
• Inventors: Thomsen, Henrik, Du, Yu
• Granted Patent: US 10,847,134 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B81B 2201/0257 Microphones or microspeakers
• CPC Class Codes: B81B 3/0021 Transducers for transforming electrical into mechanical energy or vice versa dynamo-electric machines H02K99/00; electrostatic machines H02N1/00; piezoelectric devices H10N30/00
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17853 of the filter
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 2210/3028 Filtering, e.g. Kalman filters or special analogue or digital filters
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 7/3004 Digital delta-sigma modulation
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 17/02 Microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 19/005 using semiconductor materials
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 19/04 Microphones H04R19/01 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

A digital microphone device includes circuitry that can reduce the risk of noise caused due to an idle tone frequency component in a digital signal output by the digital microphone device. In stereo mode and other applications where interference occurs between two or more such microphones, each microphone device includes a digital output having a corresponding idle tone frequency, one of which is offset to shift noise components outside of a desired frequency range.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a first microphone assembly comprising a first microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transducer and a first integrated circuit, the first integrated circuit configured to;

convert a first analog signal produced by the first MEMS transducer to a first digital signal;

convert the first digital signal to a first pulse density modulated (PDM) signal to generate a first digital microphone output signal; and

provide the first digital microphone output signal on a common interface; and

a second microphone assembly comprising a second MEMS transducer and a second integrated circuit, the second integrated circuit configured to;

convert a second analog signal produced by the second MEMS transducer to a second digital signal;

remove a direct current (DC) signal component from the second digital signal;

apply a DC offset to the second digital signal to affect an idle tone frequency of the second digital signal;

convert the second digital signal to a second PDM signal to generate a second digital microphone output signal; and

provide the second digital microphone output signal on the common interface.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first integrated circuit is configured to generate the first digital microphone output without applying a DC offset to the first digital signal.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the second integrated circuit is configured to apply the DC offset to the second digital signal responsive to receiving a select signal on an external device interface of the second microphone assembly.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein a value of the DC offset applied to the second digital signal is adjustable, and wherein the value of the DC offset applied to the second digital signal depends on a sampling frequency associated with the second PDM signal.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the second digital microphone output signal comprises a single bit PDM signal, and wherein the second integrated circuit is configured to apply the DC offset to the second digital signal before converting the second digital signal to the second PDM signal.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the second integrated circuit is configured to apply the DC offset to the second digital signal only when the second integrated is configured to provide the second digital microphone output signal on the common interface at a same time as the first integrated circuit is configured to provide the first digital microphone output signal on the common interface.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein a value of the DC offset applied to the second digital signal is adjustable, and wherein the value of the DC offset applied to the second digital signal depends on a clock frequency associated with the second integrated circuit.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein a combined idle tone frequency of the first digital microphone output signal and the second digital microphone output signal on the common interface is outside of a human audible frequency range.

9. A microphone assembly comprising:

a micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) transducer configured to generate an analog signal responsive to an acoustic signal; and

an integrated circuit coupled to the MEMS transducer and configured to;

convert the analog signal to a digital signal;

remove a direct current (DC) signal component from the digital signal;

apply a DC offset to the digital signal to affect an idle tone frequency of the digital signal;

convert the digital signal to a PDM signal to generate a digital microphone output signal.

10. The microphone assembly of claim 9, wherein the integrated circuit is configured to apply the DC offset to the digital signal responsive to receiving a select signal on an external device interface of the microphone assembly.

11. The microphone assembly of claim 9, wherein the integrated circuit is configured to apply the DC offset to the digital signal based on a mode of operation associated with the microphone assembly.

12. The microphone assembly of claim 9, wherein a value of the DC offset applied to the digital signal is adjustable, and wherein the value of the DC offset applied to the digital signal depends on a sampling frequency associated with the PDM signal.

13. The microphone assembly of claim 9, wherein a value of the DC offset applied to the digital signal is adjustable, and wherein the value of the DC offset applied to the digital signal depends on a clock frequency associated with the integrated circuit.

14. The microphone assembly of claim 9, wherein the integrated circuit is configured to apply the DC offset to the digital signal responsive to receiving a select signal on an external device interface of the microphone assembly.

15. A method in a microphone assembly comprising a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transducer and an integrated circuit, the method comprising:

converting an analog signal produced by the MEMS transducer to a digital signal;

removing a direct current (DC) signal component from the digital signal;

applying a DC offset to the digital signal to affect an idle tone frequency of the digital signal; and

converting the digital signal to a pulse density modulated (PDM) signal after applying the DC offset to the digital signal to generate a digital microphone output signal.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein applying the DC offset to the digital signal comprises applying the DC offset to the digital signal responsive to receiving a select signal on an external device interface of the microphone assembly.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein applying the DC offset to the digital signal comprises applying the DC offset to the digital signal in accordance with a value that depends on a sampling frequency associated with the PDM signal.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein applying the DC offset to the digital signal comprises applying the DC offset to the digital signal in accordance with a value that depends on a clock frequency associated with the integrated circuit.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein applying the DC offset to the digital signal comprises applying the DC offset to the digital signal based on a mode of operation associated with the microphone assembly.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein converting the digital signal to the PDM signal comprises generating a single bit PDM signal.