Low-power mixed-signal chips used in hearing aids

The Ezairo 5900 series of application-specific standard products (ASSPs) combines a 24bit precision open-programmable DSP core with the company's Hear configurable accelerator engine.

AMI Semiconductor (AMIS), has released the Ezairo 5900 series of application-specific standard products (ASSPs).

Targeting the hearing-aid market, the Ezairo 5900 series devices have ultra-low power consumption (less than 1mA at full processing power) for long battery life and 24bit computing to enable hearing aid products with high precision sound.

The Ezairo 5900 series is manufactured using a 0.13micron mixed-signal process, enabling full integration of all analogue and digital circuitry along with increased processing capability onto a single chip.

The dual-core architecture of the Ezairo 5900 series, which combines a 24bit precision open-programmable DSP core with the company's Hear configurable accelerator engine, provides a high degree of flexibility for software developers to implement their state-of-the-art sound processing solutions.

Developers can partition sophisticated audio processing algorithms between the two independent signal-processing cores to ensure a balanced work load for optimised power consumption and processing efficiency.

This is achieved with manageable code development (as opposed to architectures with more than two programmable processing cores) and minimal overhead for synchronising the cores.

24bit precision allows more efficient implementation of the complex algorithms of today and enables manufacturers to employ additional advanced signal processing software into their product designs.

"The technology of the Ezairo 5900 series provides hearing-aid manufacturers with a silicon solution that is far less expensive than developing an ASIC, with its high risk, long development time and high NRE cost", says Michel De Mey, Senior Director, Hearing and Audio Solutions at AMI Semiconductor.

"As speech and audio processing algorithms evolve to become more complex and intelligent, the Ezairo 5900 architecture has the processing head-room and flexibility to implement these highly sophisticated algorithms with extremely low group delay".

The Ezairo 5900 series provides ultra high fidelity audio, with a 90dB system dynamic range extendable to 110dB, and supports advanced adaptive algorithms with low group delay (under 1ms for 16 channels).

The chip has a high audio output option, up to 139dB sound pressure level (SPL).

On-chip peripherals include a power-management block to supervise and respond to all battery operating conditions, a clock generation and management block for optimising performance and power, and an IP protection block to prevent unauthorised access to audio algorithm code.

A full suite of development tools, hands-on training and full technical support is available for customers who want to implement the Ezairo 5900 series into their products.

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