xMEMS Labs today introduced Tomales, the world’s first monolithic MEMS tweeter µspeaker. Tomales’ top and side-firing package options and 1mm-thin profile simplify speaker placement and positioning to direct audio toward the ear in smart glasses and xR headset applications. In free-air at 3cm, Tomales delivers 75dB SPL at 2kHz, 90dB at 4kHz and over 108dB at 10kHz. Tomales implements xMEMS’ 2nd generation M2 speaker cell architecture offering improved SPL/mm2 enabling increased loudness in smaller form factors.
“Producing high-quality audio in thin form factors such as eyeglass frames can be challenging. It is difficult for a single speaker to produce acceptable low-end bass response while also delivering clear vocals and rich instrumentals,” said Mike Housholder, xMEMS VP of Marketing and Business Development. “Tomales is ideal for 2-way woofer-tweeter implementations where it’s small size and thin profile deliver impressive treble clarity, presence and brilliance to speech, vocals and instrumentals that has been lacking in current generation smart glasses and xR headset products.
As with all xMEMS µspeakers, Tomales is a monolithic architecture implementing both actuation and diaphragm in silicon resulting in unmatched part-to-part frequency response consistency and reducing speaker matching or calibration time at manufacturing. This innovative transduction mechanism has also produced the worlds’ fastest and most precise µspeakers, eliminating spring and suspension recovery of coil speakers which improves audio quality and sound field reproduction. The SMT-ready package with an IP58 rating for dust/water simplifies system design, integration, and assembly.
