TDK Expands SmartSound™ Family of Performance MEMS Microphones at 2022 Consumer Electronics Show

• T5837 and T5838 PDM microphones offer 68dBA SNR consuming only 130μA in always-on mode & 330μA in high-performance mode.

• T5848 extends the highest dynamic range I²S Digital MEMS microphone offering direct audio connectivity to a wide variety of SoCs, MCUs, and IoT processors.

January 6, 2022——TDK Corporation introduces three new digital MEMS microphones as part of the SmartSound™ family of products for mobile, TWS, IoT, and other consumer devices. Each of these high-performance microphones pushes the boundaries of microphone acoustic performance, providing advanced feature sets in small package footprints.

The T5837/38 PDM MEMS microphones offer a high acoustic overload point (AOP) of 133dB SPL, a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 68dBA and a wide dynamic range ideal for environments that shift from very quiet to very loud, such as far-field voice pickup for Smart Speaker to ANC TWS applications. The T5848 SmartSound I²S MEMS microphone offers a high acoustic overload point (AOP) of 133dB SPL, a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 68dBA and a wide dynamic range ideal for applications such as smartwatches and wearables, which need to offer high acoustic performance under dynamic noisy environments.

T5837, a very low power wide dynamic range PDM digital microphone with industry-standard features:

• Multiple modes of operation such as High Quality, Low-Power (Always On), Ultrasonic and Sleep Mode.

• High-Quality Mode offers a sensitivity of -37dB FS, LPM -21dB FS

• Targeted to smartphones, TWS earbuds, tablets, cameras, Bluetooth headsets, smart speakers, notebook PCs, security and surveillance markets

T5838, a very low power wide dynamic range PDM digital microphone with new Acoustic Activity Detect (AAD) features:

• Industry-leading acoustic performance and modes of operations seen on the T5837

• Acoustic Activity Detect, is a new ultra-low power edge processing feature where the microphone monitors the acoustic environment and wakes up the SoC or application processor when activity is detected. Available with three modes of operation starting at just 20µA, it provides user programmability to apply various filters and thresholds for optimized performance for each application.

• High-Quality Mode offers a sensitivity of -41dB FS, LPM -26dB FS

• Targeted to smartphones, TWS earbuds, tablets, cameras, Bluetooth headsets, smart speakers, notebook PCs, security and surveillance markets

T5848, a very low power wide dynamic range PDM Digital microphone with industry-standard features:

• I²S output provides high-quality 24-bit PCM audio, removing the requirement of a codec between the microphone and SoC/system processor, or the requirement of the SoC having native PDM input/decimation.

• The Acoustic Activity Detect (AAD), is a new ultra-low power edge processing feature where the microphone monitors the acoustic environment and wakes up the SoC or application processor when activity is detected. Available with three modes of operation starting at just 20 µA, it provides user programmability to apply various filters and thresholds for optimized performance for each application.
  

• Includes multiple modes of operation such as High Quality, Low-Power (Always On), and Sleep Mode.

• High-Quality Mode offers a sensitivity of -37dB FS, LPM -26dB FS

• Targeted to smartwatches/wearables, smart speakers, cameras, Bluetooth headsets, voice-activated TV remote controls, notebook PCs, security and surveillance markets

“TDK continues to expand its innovative SmartSound performance solutions with Acoustic Activity Detect functionality, positioning these new MEMS microphones as a step forward compared to the competition,” said Ritesh Tyagi, Vice President of Product Management at InvenSense, a TDK group company. “The new T5848 has 68dBA SNR, and 133dB AOP, which are improvements of 3dB and 13dB respectively to the next best I²S microphone available in the market. While the T5837/38 adds a very high level of acoustic performance by consuming only 2μA/dB SNR in the Always-On mode, compared to 4-5μA/dB SNR by other competing devices.”

Glossary

TWS: True Wireless Stereo

HQM: High-Quality Mode

LPM: Low Power Mode

AOP: Acoustic Overload Point

SNR: Signal-to-Noise Ratio

SPL: Sound Pressure Level

AAD: Acoustic Activity Detect

Key applications

Smartwatches/Wearables

Voice Activate TV Remote Controls

Smartphones

TWS earbuds

Tablets

Cameras

Bluetooth Headsets

Smart Speakers

Notebook PCs

Security and Surveillance

Key Data