xMEMS demos tiny MEMS audio and cooling chips for slimmer glasses and headphones

xMEMS showed ZDNET a suite of tiny MEMS audio and fan-on-a-chip cooling components the company says could replace traditional dynamic drivers and allow thinner, lighter smart glasses, smartwatches and headphones. The company already ships its Cowell microchip as a tweeter in products such as the Soundpeats Air5 Pro+ and the Creative Aurvana Ace 3, driven by xMEMS’s Aptos2 amplifier.

xMEMS’s Sycamore is a one-millimeter-thin solid-state microspeaker that the company says can entirely replace dynamic drivers; according to xMEMS, Sycamore weighs 18 grams versus 42 grams for a typical dynamic driver. Sycamore also comes in rectangular Sycamore-N and Sycamore-W variants engineered for smart glasses and smartwatches.

ZDNET’s Jada Jones demoed Sycamore in prototype headphones and smart glasses and reported clearer bass without the traditional visceral low-frequency feel, expanded spatial sound in an open-air smart-glasses prototype, and a louder, clearer response from the Sycamore-W in comparison with their Apple Watch.

xMEMS said its micro-cooling chip generates airflow into earcups to manage heat and humidity and that the airflow was inaudible during the demo. The xMEMS team demonstrated stacking the fan-on-a-chip near a processor to reduce a surface temperature the team showed rising to about 65 degrees Celsius down to about 36 degrees Celsius.

Key Topics

Tech, Xmems, Sycamore Microspeaker, Cowell Microchip, Micro-cooling Chip, Smart Glasses