Microphone assembly with pulse density modulated signal
AssigneeKnowles Electronics, LLC
InventorsAndrzej Pawlowski, Kasper Strange, Kim Spetzler Berthelsen, Henrik Thomsen
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Abstract
The disclosure relates to a microphone assembly including a multibit analog-to-digital converter configured to generate N-bit samples representative of a microphone signal. The microphone assembly also includes a first digital-to-digital converter configured to generate a corresponding M-bit digital signal based on N-bit digital samples, wherein N and M are positive integers and N>M. The microphone assembly may include a data interface configured to repeatedly receive samples of the M-bit digital signal and write bits of the M-bit digital signal to a data frame.
Claims19
A microphone assembly comprising:
- a transducer configured to convert sound into an electrical signal;
- and
- an electrical circuit comprising:
- a multibit analog-to-digital converter coupled to an output of the transducer, the analog-to digital converter configured to generate N-bit digital samples representative of the electrical signal;
- a first digital-to-digital converter configured to generate an M-bit digital signal based on the N-bit digital samples, wherein N and M are positive integers and N>M>1;
- and
- a processor configured to control performance of the microphone assembly by configuring the first digital-to-digital converter with configuration information stored in a register of the electrical circuit.
An electrical circuit for a microphone assembly, the electrical circuit comprising:
- a multibit analog-to-digital converter configured to generate N-bit digital samples representative of an electrical signal, the electrical signal representative of acoustic activity detected by an electro-acoustic transducer;
- and
- a first digital-to-digital converter configured to generate a corresponding M-bit digital signal based on the N-bit digital samples, wherein N and M are positive integers and N>M,
- the first digital-to-digital converter comprising an integrator having an order that is selected to reduce latency of the electrical circuit.
A method in a microphone assembly comprising a transducer and an electrical circuit, the method comprising:
- converting sound into an electrical signal using the transducer;
- generating N-bit digital samples representative of the electrical signal;
- generating an M-bit digital signal by quantizing and noise-shaping the N-bit digital samples, wherein N and M are positive integers and N>M;
- controlling performance of the microphone assembly by configuring a first digital-to-digital converter with configuration information read from a register of the microphone assembly;
- and
- providing an output signal based on the M-bit digital signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.