U.S. patent number 3,908,098 [Application Number 05/383,990] was granted by the patent office on 1975-09-23 for electrostatic transducer.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Sony Corporation. Invention is credited to Tooru Fukumoto, Hirotake Kawakami, Yoshihiro Yokoyama.
United States Patent |
3,908,098 |
Kawakami , et al. |
September 23, 1975 |
Electrostatic transducer
Abstract
An electrostatic transducer comprises a back plate electrode
having a plurality of apertures therein and a diaphragm disposed on
the back plate electrode. Each aperture has a counterbore tapering
at its top portion which faces the diaphragm, and the top surface
of the back plate electrode is formed with roughness.
Inventors: |
Kawakami; Hirotake (Tokyo,
JA), Yokoyama; Yoshihiro (Tokyo, JA),
Fukumoto; Tooru (Tokyo, JA) |
Assignee: |
Sony Corporation (Tokyo,
JA)
|
Family
ID: |
13652531 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/383,990 |
Filed: |
July 30, 1973 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
|
|
|
|
|
Aug 4, 1972 [JA] |
|
|
47-78103 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
367/189; 367/197;
381/191 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04R
19/00 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H04R
19/00 (20060101); H04N 019/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;179/111R,111E,106 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Claffy; Kathleen H.
Assistant Examiner: Stellar; George G.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Hill, Gross, Simpson, Van Santen,
Steadman, Chiara & Simpson
Claims
We claim:
1. An electrostatic transducer comprising:
a housing,
a planar base having a plurality of apertures therethrough, said
apertures having smooth counterbores tapered between 10.degree. to
40.degree. providing outwardly flaring openings on one side and the
remaining portions of said one side formed with numerous bumps,
an electrical conductive surface formed on said base in said smooth
counterbores and said remaining portions, and
an electrically conductive diaphragm mounted in said housing in
closely spaced position above said one side.
2. An electrostatic transducer according to claim 1 wherein said
openings are flared at an angle of 30.degree. relative to said
diaphragm.
3. An electrostatic transducer according to claim 1, in which a
central metal stud extends through said planar base and in
electrical contact with said electrical conductive surface and
provides the electrical connection to said surface.
4. An electrostatic transducer comprising:
a housing,
a flexible diaphragm of a conductive material supported by said
housing,
a planar back plate assembly mounted in said housing adjacent said
diaphragm,
said back plate assembly having a plurality of apertures therein
which apertures have smooth counterbored tapered openings on the
side facing said diaphragm and the tapered openings are tapered at
an angle between 10.degree. to 40.degree. relative to said
diaphragm,
said back plate assembly provided with a roughened surface thereon
facing said diaphragm; and
said back plate assembly comprises an insulating member of a resin
and a conductive layer coated on said roughened surface and the
smooth tapered surfaces of said counterbored openings to provide a
sensitive transducer having a flat frequency response up to 50,000
hertz.
5. An electrostatic transducer according to claim 4 wherein said
tapered openings are tapered at an angle of 30.degree. relative to
said flexible diaphragm.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrostatic transducer and
particularly to an electrostatic transducer to transduce an
ultrasonic wave to an electric signal or an electric signal to an
ultrasonic wave.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, ultrasonic waves have been used for a television receiver
for controlling its ON/OFF switch of the power source, channel
selection, sound volume control, etc., often referred to as the
"remote control system." A transmitter to produce ultrasonic waves
for use with such remote control systems is required to provide a
broad band width, a flat frequency characteristic and a small
consumption of power from the battery. Further, the frequency range
of the transmitter may be selected, for example, between 30 KHz and
50 KHz. In the art, a ceramic type transducer has been used as a
transmitter and a receiver mounted on the TV set for transducing
into electric signals the ultrasonic waves. However, such ceramic
type transducers do not provide the above requirements,
satisfactorily. For example, the band width is not sufficiently
broad, large power for driving the transmitter is required, and
also the output level of the ultrasonic wave is not large enough to
perform its required function.
Assume that an electrostatic transducer is used instead of the
ceramic type transducer. As is well known, a conventional
electrostatic transducer comprises a back plate and a diaphragm,
which is spaced a predetermined distance from the back plate.
However, since ultrasonic waves are very high frequency, for
example 30 KHz to 50 KHz, if the area of the diaphragm is large, it
is not possible to produce a sufficiently high frequency wave.
Therefore, the area of the diaphragm is selected to be small.
Generally, it will be considered that the diaphragm is firmly
secured to the back plate in which there is provided a plurality of
apertures. In this case, the effective area of the diaphragm
corresponds to the total area of the apertures. Since each aperture
is small, it is possible to produce high frequency waves. However,
there is no conductive layer or conductive material in the
aperture, so that a condenser is not formed between the diaphragm
and the aperture. Therefore, large output is not obtained. Further,
a ceramic or static receiver (microphone) mounted on the TV set has
the above shortcoming.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to provide a novel electrostatic
transducer.
It is another object of this invention to provide a novel
electrostatic transducer which will transduce an electric signal to
an ultrasonic wave or vice versa in a novel manner.
It is another object of this invention to provide an electrostatic
transducer in which a back plate provides a plurality of apertures
each having a tapering counterbore at its end facing the diaphragm,
in order to produce a large level output.
It is another object of this invention to provide an electrostatic
transducer on which a back plate is provided with a roughened
surface to obtain a relatively flat frequency characteristic.
Another object is to provide a transducer in which the power
consumption is minimized, because it is an electrostatic type, by
making the back plate from a resin and providing tapering openings
which are easily constructed.
Another object is to provide a novel transducer which has a
relatively low cost for assembling.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an electrostatic transducer
embodying this invention;
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view, on a greatly enlarged scale, of a
portion of the diaphragm assembly illustrated in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the back plate assembly illustrated in
FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view on line IV--IV in FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is an isometric view partly in section, on a greatly
enlarged scale, of a portion of the back plate assembly illustrated
in FIGS. 1 and 4;
FIG. 5A is a fragmentary diagrammatic view of a portion of the
diaphragm and the upper end of one aperture; and
FIG. 6 is a graph of the frequency characteristic of an
electrostatic transducer in accordance with this invention.
DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows, in section, an
electrostatic transducer in accordance with the invention. It
comprises a back plate assembly 25, a support member 6 of
insulating material, for example, resin, a diaphragm assembly 23
disposed on the back plate assembly 25, a metal housing 2 having an
opening 2a, and an externally threaded annulus 7 to secure the
diaphragm assembly 23, back plate assembly 25 and support member 6
in the housing 2.
As shown in FIG. 2, the diaphragm assembly 23 mainly comprises a
flexible film 8 of polymer plastic material, for example,
polyethylene terephthalate (Teflon), and a conductive layer 9
coated on the flexible film 8 by any suitable method, such, for
example, as by a vacuum evaporation, so that a diaphragm 3 is
constructed by the flexible film 8 and the conductive layer 9. The
diaphragm assembly 23 further includes a metal ring 4 in order to
confine the marginal edge of the diaphragm 3, so that a conductive
adhesive material 10 may be provided between the ring 4 and the
conductive layer 9. It is understood that the conductive layer 9 is
electrically connected to the ring 4 through the adhesive material
10, and the diaphragm 3 is rigidly supported by the ring 4.
The disc like back plate assembly 25 as shown in FIG. 4 comprises
an insulating member 5 and a conductive layer 12 coated on the
member 5. The insulating member 5 is made of polymer plastic
material, for example, acrylic acid resin, or polyphenyl oxide
resin. As shown in FIGS. 1, 3 and 4, a plurality of apertures 11 in
the insulating member 5 provide a sufficient air volume to
establish a desirable resonant frequency. It will be noted that
each aperture 11 provides a smooth counterbored tapering opening
11a at its top end, as shown in FIG. 5, to provide a large area
which opposes the diaphragm 3. The angle .theta. of the taper of
the counterbore 11a is selected between 10.degree. and 40.degree..
In practice, it is preferably selected at 30.degree.. The
insulating member 5 is further provided as shown in FIG. 5 with a
plurality of small irregularities 5a and 5b, or roughness surface
on its top surface. The uneven or roughened surface is formed by a
sandblast technique, or by grinding with an abrasive.
Then, the conductive layer 12, for example, aluminum, is coated on
the entire top surface of the insulating member 5 including the
surfaces of the counterbore openings 11a by a suitable technique,
for example, by vacuum evaporation.
The support member 6 is made from a resin. A metallic member 13 is
threaded on its outer surface to mate with the internally threaded
central bore of the insulating member 5, and its top surface
engages with the conductive layer 12. (FIG. 4).
An electric signal is applied between the housing 2 and the
metallic member 13, when the transducer is used as a speaker. In
this case, the diaphragm 3 is vibrated, and the produced sound wave
(ultrasonic wave) originates from the opening 2a. Further, when the
ultrasonic wave is applied to the diaphragm 3 through the opening
2a, an electric signal is created between the metallic member 13
and the member 2. In this case, the transducer is used as a
microphone.
Now, according to this invention, the apertures 11 of the member 5
are provided with tapering openings 11a, each of which effective
areas construct a condenser that causes the output level to
increase. This will be understood from an inspection of FIG. 5A,
where the condenser is indicated at 26, the condenser being formed
by the conductive layers of the diaphragm and the back plate.
Further, since the back plate assembly provides a roughened
surface, a flat frequency characteristic is established, because
there are numerous spaces formed between the projections of the
roughened surface and the diaphragm, and since acoustic resistance
formed there, the output level is reduced, but the frequency
characteristic is flat (that is to say "Q damped"). The reduction
of the output level is compensated for by the large effective area
of the condenser as described above.
As shown in FIG. 6, according to this invention, the level
increases, and a flat response is established as indicated on curve
14. The curve 15 illustrates a frequency characteristic of a
ceramic type transducer.
The embodiment of the back plate assembly 25 comprises the
insulating member 5 and the conductive layer 12, but if a metallic
material is employed instead of an insulating material for the
member 5, it is not necessary to provide a conductive layer. It
will be noted that the metal back plate is expensive.
If member 5 is made from a resin, the tapered opening 11a is easily
made and roughened surface is also easily made.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many
modifications and variations may be effected without departing from
the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of the present
invention.
* * * * *