Intrinsically-safe microphone assembly

A microphone assembly comprising:

• a housing having a host device interface;
• a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transducer disposed in the housing and configured to generate electrical signals in response to acoustic activity;
• an integrated circuit disposed in the housing and configured to process the electrical signals from the MEMS transducer and generate an output representative of the acoustic activity;
• a host communication path between the integrated circuit and contacts of the host device interface;
• a secure communication path between the integrated circuit and an output interface, the secure communication path isolated from the host communication path;
• the integrated circuit configured to indicate a state of the microphone assembly at the output interface via the secure communication path in response to a command received at the microphone assembly.

A microphone assembly comprising:

• a housing having a host device interface;
• a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transducer disposed in the housing and configured to generate electrical signals in response to acoustic activity;
• an integrated circuit disposed in the housing and configured to process the electrical signals from the MEMS transducer and generate an output representative of the acoustic activity;
• a host communication path between the integrated circuit and contacts of the host device interface;
• a secure communication path between the integrated circuit and an input interface, the secure communication path isolated from the host communication path;
• wherein the integrated circuit is configured to change a state of the microphone assembly via the secure communication path in response to a command received at the input interface.

A microphone assembly, comprising:

• a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transducer configured to generate electrical signals in response to acoustic activity;
• an integrated circuit configured to:
• process the electrical signals from the MEMS transducer and provide an output of the acoustic activity to host circuitry via a host communication path;
• detect a keyword in the electrical signals from the MEMS transducer;
• determine that the keyword corresponds to a predetermined keyword;
• and
• in response to determining that the keyword corresponds to a predetermined keyword, change or verify a state of the microphone assembly via a secure path and in accordance with a command associated with the predetermined keyword, the secure path isolated from the host communication path.