Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; ELECTRIC HEARING AIDS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
  • H04R19/00—Electrostatic transducers

Definitions

• the present invention relates to electroacous- tical transducers in general, and to the fabrication and configuration of components within such a transducer, in particular.
• Capacitance-type electroacoustical transducers are well-known in the prior art.
• a diaphragm having an insulative layer and an electrically conductive surface has its insulative layer in contact with a grooved, irregular, electrically conductive sur ⁇ face of a substantially inflexible disc or backplate.
• the periphery of the diaphragm is maintained in a fixed position with respect to a portion of the housing of said transducer and a spring force urges said backplate into tensioning engagement with said diaphragm.
• the insulative layer is stressed such that oscillatory formations develop causing an acoustical wavefront to be propagated from the diaphragm.
• a received acoustical wavefront impinging on the insulative layer produces a variable voltge across said capacitor electrodes in the presence of a bias.
• trans- ducer capacitance The ability to store electrical energy in a capacitance-type transducer and subsequently propagate or transmit at least a portion of this energy in the form of an acoustical wavefront is largely determined by trans- ducer capacitance. Being able to store more energy in a capacitance-type transducer and subsequently transmit same would either enable such energy to be transmitted further or allow smaller transducers to be employed to transmit the desired amount of energy over any given distance.
• One prior art capacitance-type transducer employs an insulative polyamide film, sold by Dupont Corporation under its registered trademark KAPTON, that is positioned between an electrically conductive aluminum backplate and an extremely thin layer of gold (300A) that has been vapor deposited on said KAPTON film. Gold is employed primarily because it does not oxidize when exposed to air for extended periods of time. The gold layer and aluminum backpate correspond to the "plates" of a capaci ⁇ tor and the KAPTON film provides the dielectric constant and establishes the distance "d" between said "plates".
• distance "d" between the "plates” of a capacitance-type trans ⁇ ducer which is solely determined by the thickness of the above-mentioned KAPTON film, has a substantial effect on transducer capacitance.
• a film having a thickness of approximately 0.3 mil is the smallest thickness film commercially available that includes all of the qualities that are necessary for a suitable dielectric layer in a capacitance-type transducer which places a limitation on the magnitude of the transducer capacitance that can be achieved, at least as far as manipulating the distance between the transducer diaphragm and backplate is con- cerned.
• the housing of prior art capaci ⁇ tance-type transducers include a protective screen structure to prevent physical damage to the above- mentioned vapor-deposited gold diaphragm layer of said capacitance-type transducer.
• This protective screen increases transducer cost and attenuates the amount of acoustical energy that can effectively be transmitted by such a transducer.
• a relatively low-cost, capacitance-type elec- troacoustical transducer assembly having substantially increased energy storage and transmission capabilities.
• the transducer comprises a housing- supported electrically conductive diaphragm and backplate with an extremely thin dielectric coating interposed between said diaphragm and said backplate, the addition of such a coating causing a substantial increase in the capacitance and therefore the energy storage and trans ⁇ mission capabilities of said transducer.
• a protective/support layer covers the otherwise exposed outer surface of said diaphragm to thereby eliminate the need to protect said diaphragm from potential environ ⁇ mental and/or physical damage.
• utilizing a pro ⁇ tective layer on said diaphragm surface eliminates the need for a protective signal-attenuating housing to pro ⁇ tect the diaphragm from physical damage and allows some base metals to be employed in the transducer diaphragm because the otherwise exposed metal surface would be sufficiently isolated from the environment in which it must operate, an environment that may cause such metals to ozidize.
• Fig. 1A is an exploded elevational view, partly in section, of a capacitance-type transducer constructed in accordance with the prior art.
• Fig. IB is an elevational view, partly in section, of the transducer of Fig. 1A, fully assembled.
• Fig. 1C is a top view of the transducer of Fig. IB.
• Fig. 2A is an exploded perspective view of a capacitance-type transducer constructed in accordance with the present invention.
• Fig. 2B is an elevational view, partly in sec ⁇ tion, of the transducer of Fig. IB, fully assembled.
• Fig. 2C is an enlargement of detail 2C in Fig.
• Transducer 10 includes cylindrical housing 12 having open end 14 and partially closed perforated end 16 at the opposite end thereof. Housing 12 also includes flanged portions 18 near opened end 14 of said housing 12. Slot vibratile diapharagm 20 extends across opening 14 and is positioned between diaphragm support ring 22 and said housing 12.
• Diaphragm 20 includes an insulative layer of polyamide film on which an extremely thin layer of gold (approximately 300A) has been vapor deposited.
• Diaphragm support ring 22 is of circular cross-section with an opening 23 through the center thereof and has a flanged end for cooperative engagement with flange portion 18 of
• Backplate 24 of circular cross-section, includes a slightly crowned electrically conductive surface for cooperative engagement with the insulative layer of diaphragm 20.
• Leaf spring 26 provides the force that maintains backplate 24 in cooperative engagement with diaphragm 20.
• Fig. IB is a sectional view, in elevation, of the transducer components illustrated in Fig. 1, fully assembled.
• the transducer of Fig. IB is assembled by placing a uniform radial force on diaphragm 20 for the purpose of maintaining said diaphragm in a relatively flat plane and then positioning said diaphragm over opening 14 (Fig. 1) of housing 12, such that the gold layer of diaphragm 20 is toward perforated end 16 of said housing 12.
• diaphragm 20 With diaphragm 20 maintained in this planar orientation, the periphery of diaphragm 20 is sandwiched between the flanged end of insulative ring 22 and flange portion 18 of housing 12, and then the open end of housing 12 is crimped onto said insulative ring 22 which places the periphery of diaphragm 20 in a fixed position with respect to said housing 12.
• Backplate 24 is placed in opening 23 of support ring 22 such that the slightly crowned surface of said backplate 24 engages the insula ⁇ tive layer of diaphragm 20 and forms said diaphragm 20 into the same general shape as the crowned surface of said backplate 24.
• Fig. 1C is a top view of transducer housing 12 which is a plan view of perforated end 16 of said housing 12 as it is shown in Fig. IB.
• Perforated end 16 provides two very important interrelated functions for transducer 10. One function is the protection of the extremely thin gold outer layer of diaphragm 20 from direct physical injury.
• transducer 30 includes cylindrical housing 32 having central opening 34, of circular cross-section, through its longitudinal center.
• Cylindrical housing 32 includes flange portion 36 extending laterally therefrom near one end thereof.
• Flat vibratile diaphragm 38 extends across that end of housing opening 34 near flange 36 of housing 32 between diaphragm support ring 39 and said housing 32.
• Diaphragm 38 consists of three distinctive layers 40, 42 and 44 that are formed in situ into a single vibratory unit before being assembled into transducer 30.
• Layer 40 of diaphragm 38 is the above-mentioned 0.3 mil polyamide film which is also referred to herein as KAPTON.
• the next layer 42 is an aluminum foil layer which has been vapor deposited by conventional means to a thickness of from 800 to 1,000A onto one surface. of said KAPTON film.
• Third or dielec ⁇ tric layer 44 of diaphragm 38 may be a coating of sili ⁇ con, silicon dioxide or glass that has been vapor deposited in situ on the outer surface of said aluminum layer to the same order of magnitude thickness as said aluminum layer.
• Diaphragm support ring 39 is of circular cross-section with an opening through the center thereof and has a flanged end 46 for cooperative engagement with flange portion 36 of cylindrical housing 32.
• Backplate 48 of circular cross-section, includes a slightly crowned, irregular, and grooved electrically conductive surface for cooperative engagement with diaphragm 38.
• Leaf spring 50 provides the physical force that maintains backplate 48 in cooperative engagement with diaphragm
• Fig. 2B is a sectional view, in elevation, of the transducer components illustrated in Fig. 2A, fully assembled.
• the transducer of Fig. 2B is assembled by placing a uniform radial force on diaphragm 38 for the purpose of maintaining said diaphragm in a relatively flat plane, and then positioning said diaphragm 38 within the flanged end opening 34 that extends through housing 32.
• leaf spring 50 is inserted through openings 52 in support ring 39 such that the center portion of leaf spring 50 presses against backplate 48 and the ends of leaf spring 50 rest against the walls in openings 52 of support ring 39.
• Fig. 2C which is an enlargement of detail 2C in Fig. 2B
• backplate 48 presses against dielectric layer 44 of diaphragm 38, thereby tensioning said diaphragm 38, together with its above-described constituent layers 40, 42 and 44, to the desired diaphragm tension force level for proper transducer 30 operation.
• the dielectric layer between metal foil layer 42 and backplate 48 is preferably provided by vapor depositing such dielectric materials as silicon, silicon dioxide, glass, etc., in situ on the inward facing metal foil surface.
• a less desirable technique would be to add the dielectric layer during transducer assembly.
• An alternate, though less capacitance pro ⁇ ducing arrangement would be to anodize (i.e., infuse or disperse oxygen into), the grooved, irregular surface of aluminum backplate 48 which is represented by dielectric coating or layer 54 in Fig. 2A, and this coating would be a substitute for the above-mentioned vapor deposited dielectric layer on metal foil layer 42.
• an oxide of such other metal may also be employed as the transducer dielectric.
• Anodizing aluminum foil layer 42 of transducer 30 would be impractical because the anodizing layer would have to be several orders of magnitude thicker than the metal foil layer which would produce a transducer dia ⁇ phragm that would be much too heavy to effectively -re ⁇
• polyamide or KAPTON film layer 40 in diaphragm 38 of transducer 30 is to provide a physical support for aluminum foil layer 42 and, if employed in this manner, to support dielectric layer 44 also.
• aluminum foil layer 42 is approximately 1,000A thick and dielectric layer 44 has the same order of magnitude thickness. Inasmuch as one angstrom (A) is equal to one ten-billionth of a meter, it is clear that neither aluminum layer 42 nor dielectric layer 44 have sufficient thickness and/or substance to be supported without aid of a film or support layer 40.
• An important requirement of film layer 40 is that its mass be low relative to the mass of the conductive diaphragm layer such as aluminum foil layer 42.
• film layer 40 of diaphragm 38 also protects the aluminum foil or other such base metal layers from physical as well as environmental damage. Physical pro ⁇ tection is provided in prior art transducer 10 (Figs. 1A, IB) by perforated housing end 16. However, in transducer 30 of the present invention, film layer 40 competely covers the outward-facing surface of foil layer 42, thereby making additional protective structrue unneces ⁇ sary. The absence of additional protective structure avoids any acoustical signal attenuation that may be caused by such structure. Protective film layer 40 introduces no such signal attenuation problems primarily because it forms a portion of diaphragm 38 and vibrates therewith.
• oxidation, for example, of metal foil layer 42 is either reduced or prevented, thereby enabling less costly base metals such as aluminum to. be utilized as the metal foil layer in place of more expensive noble metals such as gold and silver or the like.
• An additional advantage of having a protective outer film layer such as layer 40 over metal foil layer 42 in transducer 30 is that a less expensive base metal layer such as aluminum can be made to look like a more expensive noble metal such as gold if the proper coloring is chosen for said outer film layer.
• any selected material be reduced at a substantially greater rate than its dielectric con ⁇ stant. If all other factors affecting transducer capaci ⁇ tance ramain the same while the dielectric constant and thickness of a selected dielectric material change at the same rate from a previously selected material, there would be no net change in transducer capacitance.
• film layer 40 of diaphragm 38 in transducer 30 may be constructed of either conductive or insulative materials so long as the material selected has the qualities necessary to produce the desired acoustical wavefront.
• transducer 10 In prior art transducer 10 (Fig. IB), the electrically conductive layer of diaphragm 20 is in direct physical contact with electrically conductive housing 12 and therefore, electrical connection to said conductive diaphragm layer is made by connecting to said housing 12.
• transducer 30 of the present invention a small area of the metal foil layer would be masked off prior to the vapor deposition of dielectric material on said metal foil layer, and subsequent connec- tion to the conductive metal foil layer would be made through said small masked off foil area.

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• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Electrostatic, Electromagnetic, Magneto- Strictive, And Variable-Resistance Transducers (AREA)

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• 1983
  • 1983-12-05 EP EP19840900239 patent/EP0164342A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1983-12-05 WO PCT/US1983/001910 patent/WO1985002748A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 1983-12-05 JP JP84500259A patent/JPS61500578A/ja active Pending

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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