Silicon microphones have the potential to be the next high-volume MEMS application. With their compact and lightweight structure as well as high integration capability, these products are already in vogue in high-end markets, especially for hearing aid use. Hoping to tap the huge potential of MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems microphones), companies are gearing up to master the technology. The report examines the market for microphones, speakers, codecs, and end-applications.

Portable and consumer electronics device (products that utilize a microphone or microspeaker in its construction) manufacturers are continually attempting to find ways to improve profitability and gain (or retain) market share. Two common approaches are (a)reduce total cost of the cell phone unit or (b) increase price through technology features that consumers are willing to pay a premium.

These companies have done an excellent job of reducing the overall costs associated with building their products, focusing on various areas,
including the following:

• Improving the supply chain through stronger supplier relations and more supplier involvement.
• Reduction in the total number of components and negotiating lowest component costs by leveraging volume.
• Improving manufacturing efficiencies by forcing standardization and increasing automation (reducing manual assembly).
• Utilizing low cost manufacturing regions.

Despite these requirements, microphones and microspeakers have shown only limited success in satisfying the needs of device producers.

The traditional electret condenser microphone, commonly referred to as ECM (Electret Condenser Microphone) has been the standard microphone option available to device designers. Manufacturers of portable devices and consumer electronics have had no other option than the traditional ECM. ECMs have provided customers with relatively low piece part cost, but fail to satisfy users in the areas of ease-of assembly, lowest installed cost, and advancements in value-added features. The industry needed a better solution.

Manufacturers have been forced to aggressively pursue cost reductions to simply maintain profitability. Component suppliers in turn have been pushed to the limits with regards to piece part cost reductions, but without sacrificing performance and features. However, after year over year price concessions, and flattening global unit demand for some devices such as mobile phones, double-digit piece part price reductions can not be expected with the existing components. Therefore, manufactures are forced to pursue other cost saving measures.

Many portable and consumer electronics devices contains hundreds of sub components, most of which are surface mounted directly to the primary printed circuit board within the device. By utilizing high speed, automated pick-and-place equipment, components can be placed and terminated to a circuit board at rates greater than 39,000 parts per hour. For an electronic device manufacturer, the actual cost of placing a single component utilizing this equipment becomes negligible manufacturers want to maximize the number of components that can be placed utilizing automated pick-and-place.

For those components that cannot be fed through the automated equipment, manufacturers must utilize off-line, secondary assembly operations to place the remaining components. Although there are only a handful of components that fall into this category, there is still a strong need to minimize any off-line component assembly. For this reason, companies have attempted to drive suppliers to develop surface mountable components that can be implemented directly into their high-speed assembly, without sacrificing performance.

Currently, there are only a handful of components that cannot be assembled in this manner. Two of these components are the microphone and microspeaker. With at least one microphone or microspeaker used in every electronic device analyzed in this study, the need for a replacement to the traditional ECM is increasing in importance.

The construction and design of the ECM prohibits it from being assembled with standard high-speed surface mount equipment. The diaphragm and backplate materials (typically Teflon or Mylar) cannot withstand the high temperatures associated with a typical surface mount reflow process. Reflow temperatures can run as high as 260 degrees Celsius for as long as 30 seconds, well in excess of what these materials can handle without degradation of performance or complete failure.

In addition, ECMs have a charged backplate (typically 200V-300V) that is implanted at the manufacturer. If for any reason the charge is reduced or removed, the dynamic response of the microphone quickly degrades. More often than not, this is caused by excessive heat. This is why ECMs are not specified over 85°ree;C and cannot be soldered to a printed circuit board through automated surface mount processes.

For a high volume consumer microphone it is essential that a close tolerance of the microphone sensitivity is achieved by the MEMS design. In order to avoid the influence of film stress Knowles Acoustics, for example, decided to pursue an approach with a so-called free-floating diaphragm. The microphone diaphragm is supported, but not physically attached, by posts that follow a circular pattern around the edge of the diaphragm. Thus, the diaphragm is ‘free-floating' within the MEMS structure. The thickness of the diaphragm is only 1&mum, the diameter of the active 11V, these support posts establish a gap between the diaphragm and the back-plate of 4 microns resulting in an active capacity of 0.5pF.

One of the challenging issues of the silicon microphone is the packaging. Besides size and cost constraints it is mandatory totake into account a high reproducibility as well as batch fabrication processes. Pack continuously and can handle the heat produced during the reflow soldering process if ttoucakkt 260°ree; for 30secs.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1   Introduction                              

1.1         Technology of Silicon Microphones         
1.2         Advantages of Silicon Microphones         

Chapter 2   Microphone Market                         

Chapter 3   Micro Speaker Markets                     
3.1         Introduction                              
3.2         Cellular Handset Audio Speakers           
3.3         Consumer Audio Speakers                   

Chapter 4 Microphone and Speaker Supplier Profiles

Chapter 5   Headset Markets                           

5.1         The Contact Center/Office Market          
5.2         Mobile Market/PC Headset Market           
5.3         Bluetooth Headset Market                  
5.4         Aviation Headset Market                   
5.5         Headphones                                

Chapter 6   End Application Markets                   

6.1         Answering Machines                        
6.2         Audio Conferencing                        
6.3         Automotive Telematics                     
6.4         Cellular Phones                           
6.5         CB Radios                                 
6.6         Corded Phones                             
6.7         Cordless Phones                           
6.8         Digital Cameras                           
6.9         Fax Machines                              
6.11        Hearing Aids                              
6.12        Integrated Laser/Radar Detector           
6.13        Medical devices                           
6.14        Mobile computing                          
6.15        Networked homes                           
6.16        Paging                                    
6.17            PCs                                                  
6.18            PDAs                                                 
6.19            Smartphones                                          
6.20            Video Cameras                                        
6.21            Video Conference systems                             
6.22            Walkie Talkie's / Two Way Radio's                     

Appendix                                              

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure  2.1      Worldwide Market Forecast Of Silicon Microphones     
Figure  2.2      Worldwide Forecast Of Silicon And ECM Microphones    
Figure  5.1      Worldwide Market Shares Of Contact Center/Office Headset Suppliers
Figure  5.3      Worldwide Mobile Headset Market By Application       
Figure  5.4      Worldwide Market Shares Of Mobile/PC Headset Suppliers
Figure  5.5      Worldwide Forecast Of Bluetooth Headsets             
Figure  5.6      Worldwide Market Shares Of Bluetooth Headset Suppliers
Figure  5.7      Worldwide Forecast Of Airline Production             
Figure  6.1      U.S. Audioconferencing Service Handset Market Shares
Figure  6.2      Penetration Rate Of Automotive Telematics            
Figure  6.3      OEM Automotive Electronics Demand In North America
Figure  6.4      OEM Automotive Electronics Demand In North America
Figure  6.5    Worldwide Cellular Handset Market Forecast           
Figure  6.6    U.S. CB Radio Market Shares                          
Figure  6.7    U.S. Integrated Laser/Radar Detector Market Shares   
Figure  6.8    U.S. $80.3 Billion Medical Devices Market By Type    
Figure  6.9    Worldwide Wi-Fi And UWB Forecast                     
Figure  6.10  Worldwide Wi-Fi And UWB Market Shares                
Figure  6.11  Worldwide Forecast Of Smartphones In Use             
Figure  6.12  Bandwidth Comparison For Business Communications
Figure  6.13  Worldwide Video Conferencing Equipment Market Shares
Figure  6.14  U.S. Two-Way Radio Market Shares                      

LIST OF TABLES

Table   2.1     Worldwide   Forecast Of ECM and Silicon Microphones  
Table   2.2     Worldwide   Forecast Of Consumer Microphones         
Table   3.1     Worldwide   Forecast Of Cellular Handset Audio Speakers
Table   3.2     Worldwide   Forecast Of Consumer Audio Speakers      
Table   5.1     Worldwide   Forecast Of Contact Center/Office Headsets
Table   5.2     Worldwide Forecast Of Mobile/PC Headsets          
Table   5.3     Worldwide Forecast Of Aviation Headsets           
Table   5.4     Worldwide Forecast Of Headphones                  
Table   5.5     Worldwide Market Shares Of Headphone Suppliers    
Table   6.1     U.S. Forecast Of Answering Machine Market         
Table   6.2     U.S. Market Share Of Answering Machine Suppliers  
Table   6.3     U.S. Audioconferencing Service Bureau Market Forecast
Table   6.4     Worldwide And U.S. Automotive Telematics Market Forecast
Table   6.5     Worldwide And U.S. Automotive Telematics Market    Forecast
Table   6.6     North American Automobile Production Forecast     
Table   6.7     U.S. And European In-Car Audio Market Shares      
Table   6.8     Worldwide Cellular Handset Market Shares          
Table   6.9     U.S. CB Radio Market Forecast                     
Table   6.10   U.S. Corded Phone Market Forecast                 
Table   6.11   U.S. Corded Phone Market Shares                   
Table   6.12   Cordless Phone Manufacturing Capacities In China  
Table   6.13   U.S. Cordless Phone Forecast                      
Table   6.14   U.S. Cordless Phone Market Shares                 
Table   6.15   U.S. 2.4 GHz Cordless Phone Market Shares         
Table   6.16   Worldwide Forecast For Digital Cameras            
Table   6.17   Worldwide Digital Camera Shares                   
Table   6.18   U.S. Fax Machine Market Forecast                  
Table   6.19   U.S. Fax Machine Market Shares                    
Table   6.20   Worldwide Hearing Aid Market Forecast             
Table   6.21   Worldwide Hearing Aid Market Shares               
Table   6.22   U.S. Integrated Laser/Radar Detector Market Forecast
Table   6.23   Worldwide Audiological Diagnostic Product Market Forecast
Table   6.24   Worldwide Audiological Diagnostic Product Market Shares
Table   6.25   Worldwide Mobile PC Market Forecast               
Table   6.26   Worldwide Notebook Market Shares                  
Table   6.27   Worldwide Smart Appliance Market Forecast         
Table   6.28   U.S. Paging And Messaging Market Forecast         
Table   6.29   U.S. Paging And Messaging Market Shares           
Table   6.30   U.S. And Worldwide PC Forecast Per Population     
Table   6.31   U.S. And Worldwide PC Forecast                    
Table   6.32   Worldwide PC Market Shares                        
Table   6.33   U.S. PC Market Shares                             
Table   6.34   Worldwide PDA Market Forecast                     
Table   6.35   Worldwide PDA Market Shares                       
Table   6.36   Worldwide Smartphone Market Forecast              
Table   6.36   Worldwide Smartphone Market Shares                
Table   6.38   Worldwide Video Camera Market Forecast            
Table   6.39   Worldwide Video Camera Market Shares              
Table   6.40   U.S. Videoconferencing Market Forecast            
Table   6.41   Worldwide Video Conferencing Equipment Market Forecast
Table   6.42   Worldwide Two-Way Radio Market Forecast