Design and Electroacoustic Analysis of a Piezoelectric MEMS In-Ear Headphone

This article takes an in-depth look at an in-ear headphone demonstrator with a piezoelectric MEMS driver. The MEMS transducer and the demonstrator system including earphone enclosure, signal processing, and application-specific amplifier are described. The main focus of this study lies on an exhaustive electroacoustic analysis of a MEMS earphone, comprising an electrical impedance measurement, various acoustical measurements, and an investigation of the thermal behavior of piezoelectric MEMS drivers. The results show the high potential of this technology for in-ear applications and promise even greater acoustic performance with future improvements.