Manufacturer says...

ChipCenter's Paul O'Shea says...

In a significant technology breakthrough that will revolutionize the performance, design and manufacturing of communications and electronics products, Akustica, Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, has introduced the industry's first successful implementation of an acoustic System-on-Chip (SoC). Akustica's acoustic SoCs (called "Microphone Chips" and "Speaker Chips") are based on patented MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) technology that integrates the functionality of multiple microphones or speakers with microelectronics and software onto a single, standard CMOS semiconductor chip. The result is a new class of acoustic solutions that deliver unprecedented capabilities for capturing, processing and reproducing sound. Akustica's first acoustic SoC is an Analog Microphone Chip. The chip is comprised of an array of 64 membranes combined with an on-chip analog amplifier. It measures 3mm x 3.65mm x .5mm and its performance is on par with standard electret condenser microphones. Akustica is currently sampling its Analog Microphone Chip with key customers in North America, Europe and Asia. "The introduction of Akustica's first Analog Microphone Chip represents the dawn of a new era in sound innovation," said James H. Rock, Akustica's president and chief executive officer. "We look forward to introducing a wide-range of chips in the coming months that will help manufacturers develop exciting new products with distinct performance advantages." Akustica's chips offer a number of unique advantages as compared to conventional microphones and speakers: click for full size chart In addition to its superiority over conventional acoustic components, Akustica's Analog Microphone Chip also offers distinct advantages over other MEMS microphones, including: Standard CMOS fabrication " Akustica is producing its Microphone Chip in standard CMOS. Other MEMS microphones require more expensive and less flexible custom and captive fabrication processes. Multiple Membranes " Akustica is producing its Microphone Chip with multiple membranes on each chip, enabling a number of advanced capabilities for capturing and processing sound. Other MEMS microphones on the market today offer only one membrane per chip, limiting the ability to provide new acoustic capabilities. System-on-Chip " Akustica's Microphone Chip is a monolithic solution that integrates microphone functionality and signal processing onto a single CMOS chip. Other MEMS microphones require at least two chips " a MEMS chip coupled to a separate ASIC chip " to perform even the most basic functions necessary to capture and process sound. "The capabilities of conventional microphones have not kept pace with the evolution of communications and electronics products," said Dr. Kaigham (Ken) J. Gabriel, Akustica's chairman and chief technology officer. "Other MEMS microphones are hampered by custom fabrication and costly silicon approaches that limit their real-world potential. Akustica's Analog Microphone Chip represents both a significant technological breakthrough and the death of the microphone as we know it today." Akustica, a fabless semiconductor company, is the leading provider of acoustic System-on-Chip (SoC) solutions. The company's acoustic SoC solutions are based on patented CMOS MEMS technology and deliver significant performance, design and manufacturing advantages for communications and electronics products. Akustica's Microphone and Speaker Chips provide unprecedented capabilities for capturing, processing and reproducing sound by combining the functionality of microphones or speakers with microelectronics and software onto a single, standard CMOS semiconductor chip. Web Site

Akustica may be a youngster in the field of capturing and reproducing sound but they have good genes that will ensure their success. One of the co-founders of the company is widely recognized as an expert in the field of micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and helped found a new flavor of MEMS called acoustical MEMS. Basically, it's a CMOS chip with a membrane-like structure that is fabricated using the metal dielectrics and structures of a CMOS chip. This chip does away with the canister, and it's not like typical MEMS where you layer things on top of a standard CMOS chip. An acoustic MEMS is a new type of MEMS different from accelerometers or optical MEMS. It enables any kind of MEMS design using standard CMOS. Akustica licensed the patents for this design from Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU), and hired all the inventors. However, the big breakthrough is that the company can make standard acoustic MEMS using any CMOS foundry. The design is developed by etching out the chip and leaving a lattice structure behind, and then creating a deposition, to seal it. After it is sealed there is a monolithic solution with integrated electronics. click for full size figure The company's product roadmap starts with an analog, followed by a digital, then a programmable chip. The programmable design is potentially huge because customers won't have to give Akustica their proprietary sound processing algorithms. They will be able to play with Akustica's programmable chips on their own. Presently, however, the digital output microphone is still not a drop-in replacement for what Panasonic and others are already selling to the cell-phone OEMs. So designers will struggle with the idea of using Akustica's as well as a recent product from National Semi in much the same way. Although National's approach uses smaller break-away steps (click here for the National Semi review). Digital is hot, no doubt, and some companies understand that and are moving their designs toward it. The baseband designers also are excited by the fact that they can use all digital and get rid of the mixed signal on the chip. But they have reasons why they don't want the audio processing, particularly in analog, occurring on their valuable real estate. Right now a phone can't handle a digital signal from the microphone, so it has to be reconfigured. However, some believe that there is a shift occurring in the engineering departments toward using digital output from a microphone. Akustica's approach uses the digital shift thought process as a spring board to get designers to think about not only using digital but also implementing it in a surface mount device that also completes the move toward full automation for manufacturing. It makes senses because the ECM and the speaker are the only two components inserted by hand, which is slow, inefficient and expensive. This should be appealing to mobile phone OEMs. The size of these surface mount chips is also appealing, since board real estate is always at a premium. Another use for this chip from Akustica is the capability to use multiple microphones on a single chip, which means that features like noise cancellation, or direction control, can be offered. What about power consumption? This single chip power consumption is much lower than the traditional ECM. However, the power consumption doesn't really matter for a cell phone manufacturer because the baseband and RF chips still consume most of the power budget. The hearing aid manufacturer, however, will find this low power consumption very appealing. Akustica says they can bring the hearing aid manufacturers an entire system-on-a-chip solution that is the entire guts of the hearing aid, because the company offers the microphones as well as the speakers and the hearing aid will be even smaller than current models. There are competitors in this hearing aid market but the design difference that I like is that Akustica uses a one chip solution while one competitor uses a two-chips and another uses wafer bonding. So the other designs are not just larger, they're expensive and use proprietary CMOS foundries. MEMS seems to be one of those design concepts that seems to be gaining ground rapidly. These designs may branch out into just about everything electronics but it needed something like the research and designs from CMU with Akustica to make it in a standard CMOS process, and that's the key to making it available to the largest segment of designers.