Cricket Inspired High Efficiency MEMS Speakers

Abstract

We report on the realization of a biomimetic MEMS speaker inspired by field crickets. This speaker is at least five times thinner and four times more efficient than the current dynamic speakers used in portable electronics. We present results of the acoustic characterization of a single MEMS speaker. Computational extrapolation of the results suggests that an array of such thin speakers will be highly efficient compared to the existing speakers of equal area.

Keywords

• microspeaker
• electrostatic actuation
• silicon-on-insulator
• peripheral actuation