Devices inside a bionic ear for wearable sound experience

Soundchip SA designed bionic ear is developed using latest Motion and Audio MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System) components from STMicroelectronics, an HD-PA-compliant Audio Engine for zero-latency sound processing, and an ultra-low-power STM32 MCU, a 32-bit ARM Cortex-M-core microcontroller chip. The bionic hearing module’s packaging employs the latest in ECP (Embedded Component Packaging) and 2.5D PCB (Printed Circuit Board) technology from AT&S, which is capable of integrating acoustic, electroacoustic, passive and active electronic components. All this is designed to suit the comfort and size constraints of in-ear operation, and compatible with most existing in-ear-type personal audio devices. MP3 player, smartphone embedded with the bionic hearing modules allows its users to electronically “open” and “close” their ears to ambient sound conditions, or even to augment ambient sound with programmed audio from a connected smart device. This capability can fully protect wearers from noise in situations where the ambient sound is too loud, or to open the ear for natural conversation with others, without having to remove the audio device, suffer from the discomfort of occlusion, or worse, the pain of loud noise. The multi-mode audio capabilities of the bionic hearing module are enabled through the use of HD-PA technology developed by Soundchip. Their implementation in...