Suzhou , China began high volume production and shipments of its MEMS based surface mount microphone.
The Suzhou , China plant is the company's second MEMS manufacturing facility, positioning Knowles as the world leader in MEMS based silicon microphone manufacturing. This capacity expansion further enables the company to ramp up its production of surface mount microphones. Knowles is now shipping its third generation of the high volume, patented MEMS based surface mount microphone models. This microphone takes advantage of semi-conductor manufacturing processes and a unique packaging approach providing significant advantages over the existing ECMs. All SiSonic products are supplied on tape-and-reel and can be run through standard automatic pick-n-place and surface mount equipment. Furthermore, they meet industry and customer requirements for heat, shock, vibration, and longevity. Ultimately, SiSonic lowers the customers' overall cost of microphone ownership and installation and speeds their time to market, thus reducing the acoustic, electrical, and mechanical design burdens of an ECM.