Chinese microphone plant comes on stream

Knowles's newest manufacturing plant in Suzhou, China, has begun high-volume production and shipments of its MEMS-based surface-mount microphone.

Knowles's newest manufacturing plant in Suzhou, China, has begun 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.

"In the first half of 2004, our silicon microphone shipments from our corporate headquarters in Itasca, Illinois were three times greater than expectations", said Jeffrey Niew, Vice President of Knowles Acoustics.

Opening a second facility in China exemplifies Knowles's commitment to high-volume, leading-edge manufacturing".

"Knowles's leadership in manufacturing and acoustic technology enables us to meet the requirements of our worldwide customer base not only today, but in the future as well".

Knowles is now shipping its third generation of the high-volume, patented MEMS based surface-mount microphone models.

This revolutionary microphone takes advantage of semiconductor 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-and-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.

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