Music streaming from one's laptop. Loud and clear DING alerts smartwatch users to new texts. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP: The phone's alarm wakes up its owner. Consumers expect great sound regardless of device size. As the size of electronic products continues to shrink, the importance of well-designed micro speakers is increasing. Simulation software can help you design the smallest miniature speakers with excellent sound quality.
Challenges of Designing Microspeakers
With tablets and smartphones, consumers can listen to streaming services, music apps and podcasts anytime, anywhere. Additionally, as of 2019, video accounted for approximately 78 percent of global mobile data traffic. People always expect the best sound quality, even as their devices become smaller and more portable. Great sound quality comes from carefully curated and well-designed tiny speakers.
The tiny frames of tiny speakers make them a design challenge. Luxurious and loud audio isn't easy for any speaker, especially one of this size. When faced with too extreme sound pressure levels (SPL), the delicate diaphragm can even crack, causing the speaker to pop. In addition to considering the fragile diaphragm, acoustic engineers also need to design a design that avoids melting the voice coil and diaphragm due to excessive current flow.
Using simulation software, engineers can test and improve their microspeaker designs multiple times throughout the development cycle, greatly reducing the need for physical prototypes and saving time and money in the process. Another advantage of this virtual design loop over traditional physical prototyping and testing is that simulation can provide a deeper understanding of what drives the performance of microspeakers. Simulation models generate a wealth of valuable information that cannot be obtained through physical testing because any magnitude can be measured at any frequency, anywhere in the model.
Below, we compare the characteristics of an Ole Wolff microspeaker to a loudspeaker simulation using the COMSOL Multiphysics® software and an additional Acoustics Module.
Electromagnetic, Mechanical, Vibroacoustic and Thermoviscous Analysis of Microspeakers
Model overview
The OWS-1943-8CP Micro Speaker is a discontinued miniature speaker from Ole Wolff and consists of several different parts, including:
diaphragm
voice coil
magnet
pole piece
Ger
back vent
Due to its size, the layout of the miniature speakers differs from that of conventional speakers. For example, diaphragms often function as both dust caps and spider webs. They're also pretty small: the tiny speakers modeled here measure about 19mm in diameter and 2.8mm tall, which is smaller than a penny!
