Microphone assembly with pulse density modulated signal

• US 9,894,437 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2017
• Issued: 02/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Knowles Electronics Llc (Knowles Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Knowles Electronics Llc (Knowles Corporation)
• Inventors: Pawlowski, Andrzej, Strange, Kasper, Berthelsen, Kim Spetzler, Thomsen, Henrik
• Primary Examiner(s): TRAN, THANG V
• Application Number:
  US15/428,050
• Publication Number:
  US 20170230750A1
• Time in Patent Office: 370 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02163 Only one microphone
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0232 Processing in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 7/3026 the quantiser being a multiple bit one
• CPC Class Codes: H03M 7/3042 the modulator being of the error feedback type, i.e. having loop filter stages in the feedback path only
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/08 Mouthpieces; Microphones; Attachments therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 19/04 Microphones H04R19/01 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2201/003 Mems transducers or their use of the electrostatic type H04R19/005
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2410/03 Reduction of intrinsic noise in microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/002 Damping circuit arrangements for transducers, e.g. motional feedback circuits

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a microphone assembly comprising a multibit analog-to-digital converter configured to receive, sample, and quantize a microphone signal to generate N-bit digital microphone samples representative of the microphone signal at a first sampling frequency. The microphone assembly also comprises a first digital-to-digital converter configured to receive, quantize, and noise-shape the N-bit digital microphone samples to generate a corresponding M-bit Pulse Density Modulated (PDM) signal, wherein N and M are positive integers, and N>M. The microphone assembly may comprise a SoundWire compliant data interface configured to repeatedly receive samples of the M-bit PDM signal and write bits of the M-bit PDM signal to a SoundWire data frame.

Claims

1. A microphone assembly comprising:

a transducer configured to convert sound into an electrical signal; and

an electrical circuit comprising;

a multibit analog-to-digital converter coupled to an output of the transducer, the analog-to digital converter configured to receive, sample, and quantize the electrical signal to generate N-bit digital samples representative of the electrical signal;

a first digital-to-digital converter including a first quantizer and a first integrator coupled to an output of the first quantizer, wherein the first digital-to-digital converter is configured to quantize and noise-shape N-bit digital samples to generate a corresponding M-bit Pulse Density Modulated (PDM) signal based on a difference between the N-bit digital samples and a first feedback signal from the first integrator, wherein N and M are positive integers and N>

M;

a processor configured to control performance of the microphone assembly by configuring the first digital-to-digital converter with configuration information stored in a register of the electrical circuit;

a control interface over which configuration information in the register is to be written and read; and

a physical interface having contacts coupled to the electrical circuit.

2. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to control latency of the microphone assembly by configuring an order of the first integrator using configuration information stored in the register.

3. The assembly of claim 2 further comprising a SoundWire data interface coupled to the physical interface, the SoundWire data interface configured to receive the M-bit PDM signal and write bits of the M-bit PDM signal to a data frame, wherein the control interface is a part of the SoundWire interface, and the processor is configured to access the register via the control interface.

4. The assembly of claim 2, wherein the physical interface includes a clock contact and a data contact.

5. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to optimize latency and a signal to noise ratio level of the microphone assembly by configuring the first digital-to-digital converter using configuration information stored in the register.

6. The assembly of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to control a signal to noise ratio of the microphone assembly by configuring a PDM bit sample size using configuration information stored in the register.

7. The assembly of claim 1 further comprising:

a second digital-to-digital converter including a second quantizer and a second integrator coupled to an output of the second quantizer, wherein the second digital-to-digital converter is configured to quantize and noise-shape N-bit digital samples to generate a corresponding single-bit PDM signal based on a difference between the N-bit digital samples and a second feedback signal from the second integrator, wherein M>

1; and

a multiplexer comprising a first input coupled to the output of the first digital-to-digital converter and a second input coupled to the output of the second digital-to-digital converter;

wherein the multiplexer is configured to selectively transmit either the single-bit PDM signal or the M-bit PDM signal to the physical interface.

8. The assembly of claim 7, wherein the order of the first integrator is not more than 2 and the order of the second integrator is not more than 4.

9. The assembly of claim 1 further comprising a housing having a lid and a substrate on which the physical interface is disposed, the transducer is a microelectromechanical systems device, wherein the transducer and the electrical circuit are disposed within the housing.

10. An electrical circuit for a microphone assembly, the electrical circuit comprising:

a multibit analog-to-digital converter configured to generate N-bit digital samples representative of an electrical signal, the electrical signal representative of acoustic activity detected by an electro-acoustic transducer;

a first digital-to-digital converter including a first quantizer and a first noise-shaping integrator coupled to an output of the first quantizer, wherein the first digital-to-digital converter is configured to quantize and noise-shape N-bit digital samples to generate a corresponding M-bit Pulse Density Modulated (PDM) signal based on a difference between the N-bit digital samples and a first feedback signal from the first noise-shaping integrator, wherein N and M are positive integers and N>

M;

a processor configured to configure the first digital-to-digital converter using configuration information stored in a register of the electrical circuit; and

a control interface coupled to the register wherein configuration information is to be written to and read from the register via the control interface.

11. The circuit of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to control latency of the electrical circuit by configuring an order of a noise-shaping feedback integrator of the first digital-to-digital converter using configuration information stored in the register.

12. The circuit of claim 11 further comprising a SoundWire data interface coupled to the output of the first quantizer, the SoundWire data interface configured to receive the M-bit PDM signal and write bits of the M-bit PDM signal to a data frame, wherein the control interface is a part of the SoundWire data interface.

13. The circuit of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to optimize latency and a signal to noise ratio of the M-bit PDM signal by programming the first digital-to-digital converter with configuration information stored in the register.

14. The circuit of claim 10, wherein the processor is configured to control a signal to noise ratio of the M-bit PDM signal by configuring a sample size of the M-bit PDM signal, generated by the first digital-to-digital converter, using configuration information stored in the register.

15. The circuit of claim 10 further comprising:

a second digital-to-digital converter including a second quantizer and a second noise-shaping integrator coupled to an output of the second quantizer, wherein the second digital-to-digital converter is configured to quantize and noise-shape the N-bit digital samples to generate a single-bit Pulse Density Modulated (PDM) signal based on a difference between the N-bit digital samples and a second feedback signal from the second noise-shaping integrator, wherein M>

1; and

a multiplexer comprising a first input coupled to the output of the first digital-to-digital converter and a second input coupled to the output of the second digital-to-digital converter, wherein the multiplexer is configured to selectively transmit either the single-bit PDM signal or the M-bit PDM signal to the data interface in response to a select input to the multiplexer.

16. The circuit of claim 15, wherein the order of the first noise-shaping integrator is not more than 2 and the order of the second noise-shaping integrator is not more than 4.

17. A method in an acoustic microphone assembly comprising a transducer and an electrical circuit disposed in a housing having a physical interface, the method comprising:

converting sound into an electrical signal using the transducer;

generating N-bit digital samples representative of the electrical signal using an analog-to-digital converter of the electrical circuit;

generating a M-bit Pulse Density Modulated (PDM) signal, where N and M are positive integers and N>

M, by quantizing and noise-shaping N-bit digital samples using a first digital-to-digital converter;

controlling performance of the microphone assembly by configuring the first digital-to-digital converter with configuration information read from a register of the microphone assembly; and

providing a PDM signal to the physical interface.

18. The method of claim 17 controlling performance includes controlling processing latency by configuring an order of a noise-shaping feedback integrator with configuration information read from the register.

19. The method of claim 18, writing configuration information to the register via a control interface that is part of a SoundWire data interface.

20. The method of claim 17 controlling performance includes optimizing latency and a signal to noise ratio of the M-bit PDM signal by programming the first digital-to-digital converter with configuration information read from the register.

21. The method of claim 17, controlling performance includes controlling a signal to noise ratio of the M-bit PDM signal by configuring a sample size of the M-bit PDM signal using configuration information read from the register.

22. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

generating a single-bit PDM signal by quantizing and noise-shaping N-bit digital samples using a second digital-to-digital converter, wherein M>

1; and

controlling the performance of the electrical circuit includes controlling a signal to noise ratio of the PDM signal provided to the physical interface by selectively providing either the M-bit PDM signal or the single-bit PDM signal to the physical interface.