Optical readout for novel on-chip directional microphone technology

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Soundskrit is a Montreal-based start-up company developing a new type of miniaturized on-chip microphone**which, as opposed to current on-chip microphones technologies, has the potential to measure not only the**amplitude of sound, but also its direction. Such directionality is key advantage compared to current**miniaturized microphone that cannot discriminate between sources of sound coming from multiple directions.**For example, if integrated inside a cell phone, their technology could potentially pick-up only the voice of the**person holding the phone while rejecting most ambient background noise sources.**Their approach is based on extremely light and soft fibers that move freely with the direction and amplitude of**acoustic pressure waves. For sound recording, displacement of the fiber must be recorded and correlated to**acoustic wave amplitude and direction. The extreme softness and low mass requirement of the fiber makes it**incompatible with conventional electrical displacement transducers. For example, electrical strain gauges**would add unacceptable weight to the fiber and allow insufficient displacement precision. Similarly,**measurement of electrical capacitance between the fiber and a reference electrode is unrealistic since a bias**voltage between the fiber and the reference would create a parasitic force much greater then the force resulting**from acoustic pressure waves.**We will consequently work on a fully integrated on-chip optical displacement read-out technique. Our goal will**be to provide Soundskrit with a functional electronic board level proof-of-concept technology by the end of the**project.**