Acoustic sensing through optical transduction represents a promising alternative to the conventional capacitive sensing used in MEMS microphones, especially when aiming at ultralow-noise applications. In fact, the traditional acoustic to electrical transduction stages are decoupled by the intermediate conversion of the signal into the optical domain. As a result, the mechanical design of the sensor has no direct influence on the electrical readout performance, and this allows for a significant reduction of the MEMS transducer noise through aggressive acoustically semi-transparent stator designs that represent one of the limits of the standard capacitive technologies. This article reports the design and the modeling of the sensing elements of a MEMS optical microphone. The basic transduction mechanism is presented, and the main design parameters and challenges are explained and analyzed with advanced modeling techniques; the measurement results are finally compared to the expected performance.

De Milleri, N., Onaran, G., Wiesbauer, A., Baschirotto, A. (2024). Design of a MEMS Optical Microphone Transducer Based on Light Phase Modulation. IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, 24(3), 3628-3636 [10.1109/JSEN.2023.3339546].

Design of a MEMS Optical Microphone Transducer Based on Light Phase Modulation

De Milleri N.;Baschirotto A.
2024

Abstract

Acoustic sensing through optical transduction represents a promising alternative to the conventional capacitive sensing used in MEMS microphones, especially when aiming at ultralow-noise applications. In fact, the traditional acoustic to electrical transduction stages are decoupled by the intermediate conversion of the signal into the optical domain. As a result, the mechanical design of the sensor has no direct influence on the electrical readout performance, and this allows for a significant reduction of the MEMS transducer noise through aggressive acoustically semi-transparent stator designs that represent one of the limits of the standard capacitive technologies. This article reports the design and the modeling of the sensing elements of a MEMS optical microphone. The basic transduction mechanism is presented, and the main design parameters and challenges are explained and analyzed with advanced modeling techniques; the measurement results are finally compared to the expected performance.
Articolo in rivista - Articolo scientifico
high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); Keywords Audio; MEMS microphone; optical microphone; optical modeling; ultralow noise;
English
12-dic-2023
2024
24
3
3628
3636
none
De Milleri, N., Onaran, G., Wiesbauer, A., Baschirotto, A. (2024). Design of a MEMS Optical Microphone Transducer Based on Light Phase Modulation. IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, 24(3), 3628-3636 [10.1109/JSEN.2023.3339546].
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10281/478739
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