Ultra-Thin MEMS Micro Speaker Brings High Fidelity to Open Earbuds

xMEMS Labs has for the past few years leveraged its innovative piezoelectric MEMS technology to bring higher quality sounds to hearing aids and in-ear speakers. Now, the company has announced xMEMS Sycamore, which the company expects to brings high fidelity to open air speakers and enable applications in smart watches, augmented/virtual reality headsets, and other compact, mobile electronics.

The speaker technology is based on the company’s “sound from ultrasound” platform which creates full-frequency sound from ultrasonic waves in a 1-mm thin chip. Unlike xMEMS earlier Cypress µSpeaker, which delivers full-range audio for occluded, in-ear, active noise-cancelling (ANC) earbuds, Sycamore is designed to perform in open-air listening devices.

Mike Householder, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development for xMEMs, said in an interview with Design News the speaker’s size, weight, and performance would make it suited for a host of new applications, such as micro-sized tweeter for headrests, headliners, and pillars, as well as emerging products such as smart watches and glasses.

Sycamore measures just 8.41 x 9 x 1.13 mm and weighs only 150 milligrams. It is one-seventh the size of a conventional dynamic-driver package and one-third the thickness, which is critical when integrating into ever-thinner electronics like smart watches and glasses. As an all-silicon, solid-state µSpeaker, Sycamore is IP58 rated to be rugged and sweat-resistant for active users.

Related:MEMS Technology Now Helps Cool Smartphones

Measuring just 1-millimeter thick, Sycamore removes a critical constraint in design of thin mobile electronics by replacing 3-mm thick legacy dynamic driver speakers, while also requiring less back volume area.

According to xMEMs, the speaker, with its first-order low frequency roll-off, can match mid-bass performance of legacy drives while offering as much as 11dB headroom in sub-bass extension. Sycamore also pushes the performance envelope on high-frequency sound — by as much as 15 dB above 5 KHz over legacy drivers. This design enables the speaker to function as a  near-field µSpeaker tweeter alternative for laptops, automotive, and portable Bluetooth speakers.

xMEMS Sycamore uses the fabrication process as the xMEMS Cypress in-ear ANC µSpeaker and  xMEMS XMC-2400 micro-cooling (µCooling) fan on a chip. According to Householder, the same manufacturing platform was leveraged to deliver multiple different xMEMS micro products to support rapid innovation.

xMEMS will be sampling Sycamore in Q1, 2025, with mass production beginning October 2025.

Related:How to Build a Better Two-Way Headphone