Mass loaded earbud with vent chamber

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11575985-B2
Application number	US-202017002619-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 25, 2020
Priority date	Jun 27, 2014
Publication date	Feb 7, 2023
Grant date	Feb 7, 2023

Abstract

Intra-concha earphones are disclosed. In an embodiment, an intra-concha earphone includes a housing having a rear space divided into a back volume, a bass duct, and a vent chamber between a driver and a rear wall. The vent chamber may be acoustically coupled with the back volume through both an acoustic port and the bass duct. Furthermore, the vent chamber may be acoustically coupled with a surrounding environment through a vent port, which may be a sole acoustic opening in the rear wall. Thus, sound emitted by the driver may propagate through the acoustic port and the bass duct to meet in the vent chamber before being discharged through the vent port to the surrounding environment. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An earphone, comprising:
a housing including a sole acoustic port in a rear wall;
a driver within the housing, wherein the rear wall encloses a rear space behind the driver in a direction of an earphone axis, and wherein the driver emits sound that leaves the rear space through the sole acoustic port; and
a partition including an outer rim having a slot edge to define an opening radially, relative to the earphone axis, between the slot edge and an inner surface of the rear wall, and wherein the partition is located in the rear space to divide the rear space into a plurality of volumes including a bass duct extending along a curved path.

2. The earphone of claim 1 , wherein the curved path extends along the rear wall.

3. The earphone of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of volumes include a back volume between the driver and the partition, and wherein the partition includes a plurality of ports facing the back volume.

4. The earphone of claim 3 , wherein the bass duct routes the sound from the back volume to the sole acoustic port.

5. The earphone of claim 3 , wherein the plurality of volumes include a vent chamber connected to the sole acoustic port, and wherein the bass duct encloses a volume of air between a bass aperture at the back volume and a duct port at the vent chamber.

6. The earphone of claim 5 , wherein the bass aperture is one of the plurality of ports facing the back volume.

7. The earphone of claim 1 , wherein the sole acoustic port is a sole externally visible opening in the rear wall.

8. An earphone, comprising:
a housing including a sole acoustic port in a rear wall;
a driver within the housing, wherein the rear wall encloses a rear space behind the driver in a direction of an earphone axis, and wherein the driver emits sound that leaves the rear space through the sole acoustic port; and
a partition including an outer rim having a slot edge to define an opening radially, relative to the earphone axis, between the slot edge and an inner surface of the rear wall, and wherein the partition is located in the rear space to divide the rear space into a plurality of volumes including a bass duct extending along the rear wall.

9. The earphone of claim 8 , wherein the bass duct routes the sound to the sole acoustic port along a curved path.

10. The earphone of claim 9 , wherein the curved path extends about an earphone axis.

11. The earphone of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of volumes include a back volume between the driver and the partition, and wherein the partition includes a plurality of ports facing the back volume.

12. The earphone of claim 11 , wherein the plurality of volumes include a vent chamber connected to the sole acoustic port, and wherein the bass duct encloses a volume of air between a bass aperture at the back volume and a duct port at the vent chamber.

13. The intra-concha earphone of claim 12 , wherein the bass aperture is one of the plurality of ports facing the back volume.

14. The intra-concha earphone of claim 8 , wherein the sole acoustic port is a sole externally visible opening in the rear wall.

15. An intra-concha earphone, comprising:
a housing including a sole acoustic port in a rear wall;
a driver within the housing, wherein the rear wall encloses a rear space behind the driver in a direction of the earphone axis, and wherein the driver emits sound that leaves the rear space through the sole acoustic port; and
a partition including an outer rim having a slot edge to define an opening radially, relative to the earphone axis, between the slot edge and an inner surface of the rear wall, and wherein the partition is located in the rear space to divide the rear space into a plurality of volumes including a back volume between the driver and the partition, wherein the partition includes a plurality of ports facing the back volume.

16. The earphone of claim 15 , wherein the plurality of volumes include a bass duct, and wherein the bass duct extends along a curved path.

17. The earphone of claim 16 , wherein the curved path extends along the rear wall.

18. The earphone of claim 16 , wherein the plurality of volumes include a vent chamber connected to the sole acoustic port, and wherein the bass duct encloses a volume of air between a bass aperture at the back volume and a duct port at the vent chamber.

19. The earphone of claim 15 , wherein the plurality of ports includes a port defined between the outer edge of the partition and the rear wall.

20. The earphone of claim 15 , wherein the sole acoustic port is a sole externally visible opening in the rear wall.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Azmi Yacine
• Andersen Esge B
• Aase Jonathan S
• Howes Michael B

Classifications

• H04R1/1091 Primary

  Details not provided for in groups H04R1/1008 - H04R1/1083 · CPC title

• H04R1/2811

  for loudspeaker transducers · CPC title

• H04R1/2849

  for loudspeaker transducers · CPC title

• H04R1/1016 Primary

  Earpieces of the intra-aural type · CPC title

• H04R1/2823

  Vents, i.e. ports, e.g. shape thereof or tuning thereof with damping material · CPC title