Reinventing Sound with Monolithic TRUE MEMS Microspeakers
ABSTRACT
As one of the few remaining non-solid-state major components remaining in today’s consumer electronics products, the century-old, coil-based µspeaker architecture is poised for disruption. Just as the MEMS microphone started replacing legacy ECM architectures over 10 years ago, the era of thin-film piezo µspeakers will spark new innovations in sound reproduction.
Generally speaking, MEMS µspeakers bring a variety of valuable improvements versus legacy coil architectures that will succeed in driving the industry to make the solid-state transition. But not all approaches to MEMS µspeakers are created equal.
This presentation will focus on xMEMS’ unique approaches to MEMS µspeaker fabrication process, speaker cell design, test, and packaging that provide xMEMS distinct advantages in sound quality, reliability, and robustness. These qualities have put xMEMS in a position to succeed and lead this once-in-a-century technology transition.
xMEMS announced its first product, Montara, in July 2020 and is now entering mass production with lead customers in the True Wireless Stereo (TWS) personal audio market.
BIOGRAPHY
Mike is Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at xMEMS Labs, Inc. and is a 25-year semiconductor industry veteran. Mike joined xMEMS in March 2020 after a 10-year career at InvenSense, a MEMS pioneer, where in various business and product leadership roles, he drove the global roll-out of 6-axis MEMS motion sensors and motion tracking software to smartphones and other mobile consumer electronics products. Prior to that, at Marvell Semiconductor, he led business development activities for world’s first integrations of WiFi/Bluetooth into handheld consumer electronics devices. While also at Marvell, he led product management of Serial ATA controller solutions during the storage industry’s transition from parallel to serial interfaces.
Previously, Mike held marketing, sales and applications engineering positions at Cadence and early semiconductor IP innovator Virtual Chips/InSilicon (now part of Synopsys).
Mike holds a BSEE degree from the University of California, Riverside.