Article of Manufacture Having Microphone Devices Mounted on a Non-Planar Printed Circuit Board

Abstract

In one embodiment, a microphone array, having a three-dimensional (3D) shape, has a plurality of microphone devices mounted onto (at least one) flexible printed circuit board (PCB), which is bent to achieve the 3D dimensional shape. Output signals from the microphone devices can be combined (e.g., by weighted or unweighted summation or differencing) to form sub-element output signals and/or element output signals, and ultimately a single array output signal for the microphone array. The PCB may be uniformly flexible or may have rigid sections interconnected by flexible portions. Possible 3D shapes include (without limitation) cylinders, spirals, serpentines, and polyhedrons, each formed from a single flexible PCB. Alternatively, the microphone array may be an assembly of multiple, interconnecting sub-arrays, each having two or more rigid portions separated by one or more flexible portions, where each sub-array has at least one cut-out portion for receiving a rigid portion of another sub-array.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . An article of manufacture comprising:
 a non-planar printed circuit board (PCB) having a three-dimensional (3D) shape; and   a plurality of microphone devices mounted on the non-planar PCB, wherein:
 each microphone device is an individual transducer that converts acoustic vibrations into an electrical device output signal; and 
 the non-planar PCB provides electrical connections that transfer the device output signals from the plurality of microphone devices towards one or more signal-processing stages that process the device output signals from the plurality of microphone devices [e.g.,  FIGS. 1-6 ]. 
   
     
     
         2 . The article of  claim 1 , further comprising the one or more signal-processing stages [e.g.,  FIG. 7 ]. 
     
     
         3 . The article of  claim 2 , wherein at least one of the one or more signal-processing stages is mounted on the non-planar PCB [e.g., Paragraph [0066]]. 
     
     
         4 . The article of  claim 2 , wherein at least one of the one or more signal-processing stages is located external to the non-planar PCB. [e.g., Paragraph [0066]]. 
     
     
         5 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the signal-processing stages combines the device output signals from two or more of the microphone devices [e.g.,  FIG. 7 ]. 
     
     
         6 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein a flexible PCB was bent to form the non-planar PCB having the 3D shape [e.g.,  FIGS. 1-6 ]. 
     
     
         7 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the plurality of microphone devices comprises at least a first microphone device and a second microphone device;   the non-planar PCB comprises at least (i) a first PCB portion and (ii) a second PCB portion non-coplanar with the first PCB portion;   the first microphone device is mounted on the first PCB portion; and   the second microphone device is mounted on the second PCB portion [e.g.,  FIGS. 3-5 ].   
     
     
         8 . The article of  claim 7 , wherein the first and second PCB portions are mutually parallel [e.g.,  FIG. 3 ]. 
     
     
         9 . The article of  claim 7 , wherein the first and second PCB portions are mutually orthogonal [e.g.,  FIGS. 4 and 5 ]. 
     
     
         10 . The article of  claim 7 , further comprising the one or more signal-processing stages, wherein the one or more signal-processing stages process the device output signals from at least the first and second microphone devices using at least first-order differential beamforming [e.g., Paragraphs [0034] and [0035]]. 
     
     
         11 . The article of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more signal-processing stages employ delay-sum beamforming [e.g., Paragraph [0035]]. 
     
     
         12 . The article of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more signal-processing stages employ filter-sum beamforming [e.g., Paragraph [0035]]. 
     
     
         13 . The article of  claim 10 , wherein the one or more signal-processing stages are optimized in terms of maximizing directional gain under white-noise-gain and spatial constraints [e.g., Paragraph [0035]]. 
     
     
         14 . The article of  claim 7 , wherein the first and second microphone devices point in different directions [e.g.,  FIGS. 1-4 ]. 
     
     
         15 . The article of  claim 14 , wherein the first and second microphone devices point in opposite directions [e.g.,  FIG. 3 ]. 
     
     
         16 . The article of  claim 14 , wherein the first and second microphone devices point in orthogonal directions [e.g.,  FIG. 4 ]. 
     
     
         17 . The article of  claim 7 , further comprising the one or more signal-processing stages, wherein the one or more signal-processing stages combine the device output signals from the first and second microphone devices such that mechanical vibration components in the device output signals due to vibration of the non-planar PCB are suppressed, while acoustic-pressure components in the device output signals are preserved [e.g., Paragraph [0043]]. 
     
     
         18 . The article of  claim 1 , further comprising at least one camera mounted on the non-planar PCB [e.g., Paragraph [0067]]. 
     
     
         19 . The article of  claim 1 , further comprising at least one accelerometer mounted on the non-planar PCB proximate to at least one microphone device [e.g., Paragraph [0067]]. 
     
     
         20 . The article of  claim 19 , further comprising two or more accelerometers, each accelerometer mounted on the non-planar PCB proximate to a different microphone device [e.g., Paragraph [0067]]. 
     
     
         21 . The article of  claim 1 , further comprising one or more other electronic devices mounted onto the non-planar PCB [e.g., Original parent claim  36 ]. 
     
     
         22 . The article of  claim 21 , wherein the one or more other electronic devices comprise one or more of:
 one or more analog-to-digital (A/D) converters adapted to digitize the device output signals;   one or more summing circuits adapted to combine the device output signals; and   one or more of one or more gyroscopes, one or more accelerometers, one or more cameras, one or more vibration sensors, one or more pressure sensors, one or more capacitive sensors, one or more temperature sensors, one or more application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), one or more field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), one or more complex programmable logic devices (CPLDs), one or more digital signal processors (DSPs), and one or more advanced RISC (reduced instruction set computer) machines (ARMs) [e.g., Original parent claim  37 ].   
     
     
         23 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein at least two of the microphone devices have different dynamic ranges such that different microphone devices can be selected for different applications [e.g., Original parent  claim 2 ]. 
     
     
         24 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein at least two of the microphone devices have different frequency responses such that different microphone devices can be selected for different applications [e.g., Original parent  claim 3 ]. 
     
     
         25 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein the non-planar PCB has at least two microphone devices mounted onto opposites sides of the non-planar PCB [e.g., Original parent  claim 21 ]. 
     
     
         26 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein the non-planar PCB has one or more openings that facilitate sound reaching the microphone devices [e.g., Original parent claim  35 ]. 
     
     
         27 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the non-planar PCB comprises a plurality of interconnected flat portions; and   at least some of the microphone devices are mounted onto at least some of the flat portions [e.g., Original parent claim  42 ].   
     
     
         28 . The article of  claim 27 , wherein at least one flat portion is mass-loaded to control mechanical vibrations of the at least one flat portion relative to at least one other flat portion [e.g., Original parent claim  43 ]. 
     
     
         29 . The article of  claim 27 , wherein at least one flat portion has at least two microphone devices mounted onto opposites sides of the flat portion [e.g., Original parent claim  44 ]. 
     
     
         30 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the non-planar PCB is part of a first sub-assembly; and   the article comprises an assembly formed by interconnecting the first sub-assembly and at least a second sub-assembly [e.g., Original parent claim  51 ].   
     
     
         31 . The article of  claim 30 , wherein the first sub-assembly is interconnected to the second sub-assembly by interlocking a member of the first sub-assembly within a cut-out portion of the second sub-assembly [e.g., Original parent claim  52 ]. 
     
     
         32 . The article of  claim 1 , wherein:
 the microphone devices are mounted onto the non-planar PCB at different mounting locations;   each mounting location corresponds to a mounting plane that is orthogonal to a normal line to the surface of the non-planar PCB at the mounting location; and   the mounting planes corresponding to the microphone devices are not all mutually co-planar [e.g., Original parent claim  55 ].   
     
     
         33 . The article of  claim 32 , wherein:
 the plurality of microphone devices comprise more than three microphone devices; and   the more than three microphone devices are mounted onto the non-planar PCB at more than three different, non-co-planar mounting locations [e.g., Original parent claim  56 ].