Earphone Speaker Unit Frame Venting for Pressure Relief
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Earphones experience discomfort due to increased internal pressure when worn, and are prone to acoustic degradation and risk of explosion or fire when exposed to water or humidity, especially with built-in batteries.
Innovation Solution
A speaker unit design featuring a frame with strategically placed holes and mesh members to allow communication between internal and external spaces, preventing sealing and minimizing water ingress, while maintaining acoustic performance and protecting internal circuits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the earphone is designed with a sealed structure to protect internal components, then waterproofing is improved, but user comfort deteriorates due to pressure buildup
Solution Approach 1:
The earphone housing is divided into multiple sealed compartments (first sealed space, second sealed space, third sealed space) separated by partitions. This segmentation allows each compartment to be independently pressurized or vented, enabling waterproofing while managing internal pressure to maintain user comfort.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the speaker unit is exposed to the external environment, then user comfort is improved by preventing pressure buildup, but waterproofing deteriorates due to water ingress risk
Solution Approach 1:
The vibration plate serves as an intermediary element that is permeable to sound waves but impermeable to water. It allows acoustic energy to pass through from the speaker unit to the external environment while maintaining the waterproof seal of the housing.
3Reliability
If the earphone is fully sealed for waterproofing, then protection from water is improved, but acoustic performance deteriorates due to trapped sound pressure
Solution Approach 1:
The vibration plate is implemented as a thin, flexible film that allows sound pressure to equalize between the internal speaker unit and external environment. This thin film structure maintains waterproofing while enabling natural acoustic performance by preventing sound pressure buildup.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a speaker unit for an earphone. The speaker unit includes a magnet, a voice coil, a vibration plate, a fixing ring on which an edge of the vibration plate is mounted, and a frame configured to accommodate the magnet, the upper plate, and the voice coil. Here, a pipe conduit is formed in the frame along a circumferential direction. A first hole configured to allow the pipe conduit and a first space disposed in front of the speaker unit to communicate with each other is formed in at least one first position at a top of the frame in a circumferential direction. A second hole configured to allow the pipe conduit and a second space disposed in the rear of the speaker unit to communicate with each other is formed in at lest one second position at a bottom of the frame in a circumferential direction.