When designing a microphone assembly the other day, I reached for an electret condenser microphone capsule without thinking. To be strictly accurate I ordered a pack of them, these small cylindrical ...

Electret microphones are capable of high-quality output, and are prized for their smooth frequency response. However, unlike other types, they can’t simply be plugged directly into a mixing desk.

Fig. 1: Diagrams from Wente’s 1916 patent application show the condenser microphone in cutaway view. Diaphragm (#6), which is grounded, is stretched only 5/10000th of an inch from the backplate (#7), ...

A team of researchers from NIMS (National Institute for Materials Science), Hokkaido University and Meiji Pharmaceutical University has developed a gel electret capable of stably retaining a large ...

If you’ve ever used a cellphone, hearing aid, or baby monitor, listened to live or recorded music, or recorded anything yourself, you’re indebted to James West. West is the co-inventor of the electret ...

A team of researchers has developed a gel electret capable of stably retaining a large electrostatic charge. The team then combined this gel with highly flexible electrodes to create a sensor capable ...

This article originally appeared in the Feb. 8, 2017, edition of Radio World Engineering Extra and was posted on this website Feb. 9, 2017. If you like this content you should subscribe to Radio World ...

(a) Photographs of an alkyl–π liquid and an alkyl–π gel in vials. (b) Response of an alkyl–π gel-based vibration sensor to 17 Hz vibrations. 1. A team of researchers from NIMS, Hokkaido University and ...