xMEMS introduces Lassen
With Lassen, xMEMS has reduced the barrier to entry by eliminating the need for a piezo amplifier, reducing cost, component area and power consumption.
xMEMS Labs has introduced xMEMS Lassen, the company’s newest innovation for delivering micro fidelity (µFidelity) audio to mass-market consumer earbuds.
Responding to industrywide praise and enthusiastic reviews of xMEMS speaker technology for creating the highest quality sound, xMEMS has introduced Lassen, a lower cost all-silicon micro tweeter solution for TWS (True Wireless Stereo) earbuds.
The xMEMS Lassen micro-speaker delivers up to 115dB SPL in the 6kHz to 20kHz frequency range from a standard 1Vrms audio output, without the need of additional amplification, delivering sound quality that exceeds that of legacy tweeter speaker technologies. Measuring just 3.2 x 5 x 1.15 mm and consuming mere microwatts of power, Lassen significantly reduces the barriers of entry to broad deployment of 2-way TWS wireless earbud audio.
xMEMS designed the groundbreaking Lassen TWS tweeter on its established, proven MEMS platform to enable mass production and easy integration into 2-way earbuds.
“The industry has embraced the superior audio quality of 2-way speakers in TWS earbuds, as well as the ability of xMEMS speakers to enhance that quality,” said Mike Housholder, VP of Marketing & Business Development at xMEMS. “Lassen is a revolutionary design based on a proven platform. It will bring the benefits of 2-way earbud audio to a broader market by eliminating extra cost of the piezo amplifier and minimizing the space and power required to deliver truly immersive TWS sound experience.”
The previous xMEMS Cowell and Muir MEMS speaker solutions for 2-way earbuds required a separate piezo amplifier chip. Manufacturers such as Creative Labs and Soundpeats embraced this integration requirement because the solid-state xMEMS drivers produced unparalleled sound reproduction quality and detail.
However, with xMEMS’ Lassen, no amplifier is required – freeing up space in TWS earbuds for other advanced features while delivering that same superior sound quality and soundstage as previous xMEMS technologies.
And because Lassen is manufactured in the same high-capacity semiconductor wafer fabs as other xMEMS products, it enjoys superior semiconductor-level quality and scalability, so TWS designers know they can deliver consistent, repeatable sound quality across their TWS earbud designs.
By removing the amplifier requirement, xMEMS was able to reduce the cost of tweeter integration by roughly 25 percent. This puts solid-state MEMS speaker technology squarely on-par with other micro tweeter solutions, including balanced armature and planar magnetic drivers. However, neither of those technologies can match xMEMS’ speaker technology for detail and clarity, which are fast becoming requirements for high-res and spatial audio.
Samples of the xMEMS Lassen TWS Tweeter are available now, with mass production scheduled for September 2025.
