Condenser microphone unit and method of manufacturing the same

Abstract

A condenser microphone unit includes a diaphragm vibrated by acoustic waves, a fixed electrode disposed to face the diaphragm, and an insulation base making contact with a rim portion of the fixed electrode to support the fixed electrode, wherein a ring-shaped protrusion is provided on a rim portion of the insulation base, the ring-shaped protrusion protruding toward the fixed electrode with a radially inward taper and having a ring-shaped distal face to oppose the rim portion of the fixed electrode, the distal face of the ring-shaped protrusion supports the rim portion of the fixed electrode, and an adhesive is provided on a tapered surface of the ring-shaped protrusion positioned between the insulation base and the fixed electrode, the adhesive having property to shrink by curing. When the adhesive is cured, contact portions of the insulation base and the fixed electrode are tightly bonded together.

Claims

1. A condenser microphone unit comprising: a diaphragm adapted to be vibrated by acoustic waves; a fixed electrode including a contact surface at a bottom surface thereof and disposed to face the diaphragm; an insulation base supporting the fixed electrode, and including a ring-shaped protrusion radially taperedly protruding toward the fixed electrode at a rim portion of the insulation base to support the fixed electrode, and a plurality of positioning projections arranged on the ring-shaped protrusion and contacting an outer circumferential surface of the fixed electrode to position the fixed electrode on the insulation base, the ring-shaped protrusion having a ring-shaped distal face contacting the contact surface of the fixed electrode, and a tapered surface radially downwardly tapered from the ring-shaped distal face toward an outer circumferential surface of the ring-shaped protrusion to form a space between the tapered surface and the contact surface; and an adhesive filled in the space between the tapered surface of the ring-shaped protrusion and the contact surface of the fixed electrode, wherein when the adhesive is cured, the fixed electrode and the insulation base are tightly bonded, and a thickness of the adhesive is radially thicker toward an outer portion of the adhesive, and the distal face of the ring-shaped protrusion and the contact surface of the fixed electrode are respectively flat such that no gap exists between the distal face and the contact surface to prevent air leakage.

2. The condenser microphone unit according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of positioning projections includes a tapered portion on a top portion thereof so that the fixed electrode is easily placed on the insulation base.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

(1) FIG. 1 is across sectional view of a condenser microphone unit according to an embodiment of the present invention;

(2) FIG. 2 is a plan view of an insulation base included in the condenser microphone unit illustrated in FIG. 1;

(3) FIG. 3 is a partial cross sectional view illustrating a rim portion of an insulation base;

(4) FIG. 4 is a partial cross sectional view illustrating the rim portion of the insulation base;

(5) FIG. 5 is a partial cross sectional view illustrating the rim portion of the insulation base;

(6) FIG. 6 is a partial cross sectional view illustrating the rim portion of the insulation base;

(7) FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view of a conventional condenser microphone unit; and

(8) FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view for explaining leakage from contact portions of the insulation base and the fixed electrode of a conventional condenser microphone unit.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(9) An embodiment of the present invention will now be described referring to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a cross sectional view of a condenser microphone unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. For a condenser microphone unit 1 illustrated in FIG. 1, the component equivalent to that of the condenser microphone unit already described using FIG. 7 is appended with the same reference sign.

(10) The illustrated condenser microphone unit 1 includes a unit case 10 including a plurality of front acoustic terminal holes 10a on the front end surface thereof, an electroacoustic transducer 20 contained in the unit case 10, and a circuit board 30 disposed on the rear end opening of the unit case 10.

(11) The electroacoustic transducer 20 includes a diaphragm 22 stretched across a supporting ring 21 with a predetermined tension, a disk shaped fixed electrode 24 disposed to face the rear side of the diaphragm 22, and an insulation base 2 supporting the rim portion of the fixed electrode 24. A spacer ring 23 having electric insulating property is provided between the fixed electrode 24 and the diaphragm 22 at rim portions thereof with a predetermined gap therebetween. An electrostatic electroacoustic transducer 20 is thus configured.

(12) A field-effect transistor (FET) 40 serving as an impedance converter is mounted on the circuit board 30. Agate electrode, one of three electrodes of the FET 40 is connected to the fixed electrode 24 via predetermined electrically connecting means.

(13) To achieve unidirectional characteristics of the condenser microphone unit 1, a circuit board 30 includes a rear acoustic terminal 32, and acoustic holes (acoustic wave introducing holes) 2a and 24a are drilled in the insulation base 2 and the fixed electrode 24, respectively.

(14) This configuration allows acoustic waves traveling from the rear acoustic terminal 32 to have effect on the back side of the diaphragm 22 via the acoustic holes 2a and 24a. A predetermined acoustic resistance material 26 is disposed in the air chamber 50 provided between the fixed electrode 24 and the acoustic hole 2a.

(15) The condenser microphone unit 1 according to the embodiment is characterized by the configuration of the insulation base 2 supporting the fixed electrode 24. FIG. 2 is a plan view of the insulation base 2.

(16) As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the insulation base 2 is provided with a small-diameter-ring-shaped protrusion 3 in the central portion and a large-diameter-ring-shaped protrusion 4 in the rim portion to support the rim portion of the fixed electrode 24.

(17) The small-diameter-ring-shaped protrusion 3 protrudes to forma sleeve with a constant inner diameter and a constant outer diameter respectively. The outer circumferential surface of the small-diameter-ring-shaped protrusion 3 and the inner circumferential surface of the large-diameter-ring-shaped protrusion 4 forms an air chamber 50 in which the acoustic resistance material 26 is provided as illustrated in FIG. 1.

(18) The large-diameter-ring-shaped protrusion 4 has an inner circumferential surface with a constant diameter. The outer circumferential surface of the large-diameter-ring-shaped protrusion 4 is a tapered surface 4b which is tapered radially inward and protrudes toward the fixed electrode 24. A distal face 4a continuing from the tapered surface 4b of the ring-shaped protrusion 4 is formed flat. The distal face 4a supports the bottom face of the rim portion of the fixed electrode 24.

(19) Bar-like positioning projections 5 are provided at a plurality of circumferential positions (four positions in FIG. 2) on the tapered surface 4b of the large-diameter-ring-shaped protrusion 4. The positioning projections 5 extend upright to support the outer circumferential surface of the fixed electrode 24. The circumferential width of the positioning projection 5 is not particularly limited.

(20) The height of the positioning projection 5 is such that the inner circumferential surface 5a of the positioning projection 5 makes contact with the bottom half section, approximately, of the outer circumferential surface of the fixed electrode 24 when the fixed electrode 24 is placed on the distal face 4a of the ring-shaped protrusion 4. The positioning projection 5 has a tapered surface 5b on the top front portion thereof so that the fixed electrode 24 can easily be placed on a predetermined position on the insulation base 2.

(21) An adhesive 8 which shrinks by curing (e.g., rubber-based adhesive) is provided on the tapered surface 4b of the ring-shaped protrusion 4 in the space in the inner side of the positioning projection 5 and underneath the bottom face of the rim portion of the fixed electrode 24. When the adhesive 8 is cured, the fixed electrode 24 is supported on the insulation base 2 with no gap.

(22) A step of placing the fixed electrode 24 on the insulation base 2 will now be described referring to FIGS. 3 to 6. FIGS. 3 to 6 are cross sectional views each partially illustrating the rim portion of the insulation base 2.

(23) First, as illustrated in FIG. 4, an uncured adhesive 8 is provided in the inner side of the positioning projection 5 on the tapered surface 4b of the ring-shaped protrusion 4 of the insulation base 2 illustrated in FIG. 3.

(24) Then the rim portion of the fixed electrode 24 is placed on the distal face 4a of the ring-shaped protrusion 4. Since the distal face 4a of the ring-shaped protrusion 4 and the contact surface of the fixed electrode 24 are both flat, a sheared surface 61 or a sharp edge 62 is allowed to exist on the end face of the fixed electrode 24 as illustrated in FIG. 4.

(25) As illustrated in FIG. 5, the space which is in the inner side of the positioning projection 5 and surrounded by the bottom face of the rim portion of the fixed electrode 24 and the tapered surface 4b is filled with the adhesive 8.

(26) When thinner of the adhesive 8 volatilizes, the adhesive 8 shrinks, reducing its volume. As a result, as illustrated in FIG. 6, a force F is produced to pull the fixed electrode 24 toward the insulation base 2 to tightly bond together the bottom face of the rim portion of the fixed electrode 24 and the distal face 4a of the ring-shaped protrusion 4 of the insulation base 2. Since contact portions of the insulation base 2 and the fixed electrode 24 are flat, namely with no shrinkage recess on the insulation base 2 and no sharp edge produced by press forming on the fixed electrode 24, no gap exists between the contact portions, and therefore air leakage is prevented.

(27) To prevent air leakage from between the insulation base 2 and the fixed electrode 24, the embodiment according to the present invention is configured that the insulation base 2 and the fixed electrode 24 are positioned to make contact with each other via flat contact portions and then tightly bonded together with no gap therebetween when the adhesive 8, which shrinks by curing, is cured.

(28) Consequently, with no leak passage, a condenser microphone equipped with a long acoustic tube having narrow directional property can be manufactured without variation in property among products.

(29) Although the embodiment is illustrated to have four positioning projections 5 on the rim portion of the insulation base 2, the number of positioning projections 5 is not limited. Note that, preferably at least three positioning projections 5 are circumferentially provided at an even pitch to make positioning of the fixed electrode 24 easy.

(30) Although the embodiment is illustrated to provide the adhesive 8 before the insulation base 2 makes contact with the fixed electrode 24, other procedure can be used. The adhesive 8 may be provided after the insulation base 2 makes contact with the fixed electrode 24.