SINGAPORE, (Jan 26, 2022)- Fortemedia ,the global leader of voice integration solutions, today announces the latest generation of microphone solutions and voice algorithms. Fortemedia’s integrated solution iSAM® provides customers with optimized audio quality and noise suppression. The iSAM® business model integrates the capabilities of advanced voice computing and high-performance audio microphones. In the era of artificial intelligence. Fortemedia has highly integrated technical capabilities in software and hardware, covering wide applications in mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, notebooks, in-vehicle systems, wearable electronics and Internet of Things products. It enables the customer’s product to quickly integrate into the voice cloud with higher voice quality. 

Through the 3CT (see below) technology, Fortemedia not only makes the microphone product easy to design, and equipped with its own array microphone voice algorithm, it can also greatly increase the reliability. The microphone can approach 0 ppm of defect rate in the system. In terms of performance, 3CT technology can further improve the voice performance by an additional 6dB of signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. Combined with Test Bench®, Pre-test and Virtual Lab® of Fortemedia, verification time can be largely reduced. The time to market is 5 times faster.

Fortemedia’s latest high-performance MEMS microphone solutions and voice technology have been adopted by the world’s leading notebook manufacturers. It provides the majority of notebook computers with ±1 dB matching sensitivity, high SNR and 120 dB SPL high Acoustic Overload Point (AOP) performance. Accompanied with SAMSoft®, Fortemedia’s total solution not only provides miniature MEMS microphone for narrow bezel models, but also provides voice quality that can meet requirements defined by the latest Microsoft RTC (Real-Time Communication) standards.

The benefits and advantages of the iSAM ® technology is that with the adoption of SAMTester’s unique 3CT technology, microphone manufacturing becomes more efficient while maintaining quality consistence. End products can have higher voice quality and functionality to meet the requirements of small space, low latency, and low power consumption.

In the product roadmap for MEMS microphone, Fortemedia is set to launch its smallest microphone solution at 2.7×1.8×0.9mm3 this year (2022). This microphone with have ultra-high performance signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio meeting the needs of customers that requires small size, high performance microphones. iSAM® microphone solution integrating with ForteVoice® voice processing can clearly separate signals from noise, and realize acoustic scene identification in different kinds of environments. Incorporating AI machine learning into voice processing technologies, it delivers unprecedented voice experiences in real-time phone calls, maintaining high-quality voice communication along with delivering advanced beamforming and acoustic awareness. In addition to the 2.7×1.8×0.9mm3 size digital microphone solution, Fortemedia will be the first to launch a high-definition array microphone (HD Microphone), which only takes one-tenth (1/10) power consumption, but increases the SNR by 6 to 12dB, and can improve the far-field pickup (FFP) by more than 10 dB. With this HD array microphone, which is expected to be launched in 2023, end users can enjoy higher level of voice experience.

In addition to self-calibration and compensation, 3CT technology can complement Fortemedia’s voice algorithm, by providing arrays of phase-matched microphones, which can provide end-products with additional 6dB of SNR. In terms of system reliability enhancement, Fortemedia’s voice technology can also adjust the array microphone algorithm to respond to the situation when a microphone is damaged or unable to receive any sound due to being blocked by external objects such as dusts or ashes. ForteVoice can turn off the damaged or malfunctioning microphone, and divert the voice input function to other functioning microphones, so that the call can continue and maintain a certain voice quality, resulting in nearly 0 ppm defect rate for the end product.

3CT technology includes the following three major functions:

Calibration
During the manufacture of microphone, it conducts a calibration system of sound pressure as a reference and standard for those produced microphone. With this, microphone manufacturer can adjust each microphone’s sensitivity matching is ±1dB, phase matching is ±1 dB after self-detecting and fault-identifying. Together with Fortemedia’s software, a system-level calibration amongst the microphones and speaker output components is further conducted.

Compensation
After the MEMS microphone is calibrated, the software of iSAM® automatically compensates for slight drifts during assembly, making the microphone more reliable after assembly. Using Fortemedia’s software processing, further compensation can be conducted, enabling system-level matching amongst array microphones in the end-product.

Combination
Equipped with Fortemedia’s MEMS array microphone after calibration and compensation, Fortemedia’s voice algorithm can realize low latency, low power consumption, and higher reliability in acoustics for the whole complex system. Furthermore, by interfacing and configuring each array microphone in sensitivity, AOP and other features, high-definition performance of SNR, AOP, low latency and low power consumption in the system can be achieved accordingly.

Fortemedia also understands that long development cycle has always been one of the customer’s pain points. In view of this, Fortemedia has launched Test Bench® and Virtual Lab®, With this system, accurate and efficient acoustic simulation can be fulfilled in various product development stages (such as Evaluation Board, Prototype, etc.). Industry standards such as 3Quest, POLQA can be simulated in Test Bench and Virtual Lab with Fortemedia’s voice algorithm and iSAM® microphone solution. With this, end products can be verified, optimized, confirmed to comply with various standards including AT&T, Sprint, CMCC etc., voice quality requirement for mobile phones, and automotive voice communication requirements such as ITU P.1100/P.1110/P.1120/P.1140, CarPlay, Android Auto, etc.

For notebooks, Fortemedia’s Test Bench® and Virtual Lab® play an even more important role. The product cycle of the notebook market is extremely short with many product models. There are many industry standards to comply. Using Fortemedia’s Test Bench® a manufacturer can pass Teams (Microsoft), Cortana (Microsoft), Alexa (Amazon) and other specifications in the Microsoft ecosystem efficiently. The efficiency can be increased by five times, the use of manpower can be reduced by more than half, greatly shortening the verification time, compared to traditional test that takes several months. Through three key steps (recording, simulation, and verification) within the Test Bench® of Fortemedia, performance tuning time can be reduced to only a few days. One key step, Pre-test can allow the notebook producer to confirm the preciseness of frequency response and phase matching of array microphone in the mechanism in advance so that the acoustic mechanism design of customer products can be completed at one go, and thus improving the overall development efficiency.

For automotive applications, using the service of Test Bench® acoustic test simulation system can greatly improve the development efficiency, shorten the verification time, save human and material costs, and ensure the accuracy and consistency between the real vehicle and the simulation results. It can effectively reduce the development time for rapid release-to-market, and shorten the development time (Time-to-Market, TTM) by more than five times

Jimmy Hsu, Global Product Marketing Director of Fortemedia, further commented, ” Fortemedia is committed to integrating algorithms, array microphones and acoustic test simulation platform in noise suppression and far field pickup technologies, providing leadership solutions and high quality of voice communication. As a pioneer of small array microphones and a leading manufacturer of global acoustic processing technology, Fortemedia launches iSAM® that integrates microphone design and voice processing, mimics human being’s brain and ears. With the advent of artificial intelligence, it provides customers with a total voice solution and eliminating matching problems due to microphone placement, performance differences, cavity acoustics and other factors that might affect voice quality of final end-products. Our voice input interface solution enables products to connect to the cloud and deliver a loud and clear voice.”

About Fortemedia Inc.

As a technology leader in voice processing, Fortemedia has driven product and technology development in voice for more than 20 years. Its superior voice processing is well recognized by world’s top five mobile phone manufacturers and major notebook computer manufacturers, gaining trusts with quality and consistent customer service. The rise of voice cloud strengthens the requirements for speech recognition ability, further validating speech to become an important human-machine interface and expanding the application from mobile phones to other products such as smart speakers, notebooks, televisions, and vehicles. This trend also drives the market demand for MEMS microphones. Further expanding its business scope, Fortemedia has developed solutions for MEMS microphone sensor combined with chips for analog and digital interface respectively in recent years for microphone manufacturers and end customers in various fields such as mobile phones, notebooks, and TWS headphones etc.

Fortemedia’s MEMS microphone solution performs high SNR, which can greatly improve the quality of sound and the voice recognition rate under noisy environment. Its microphone sensor and chip design ensure voice input quality (±1 dB sensitivity matching and phase matching). Equipped with artificial intelligence deep learning technology in noise suppression technology, Fortemedia’s array microphone can achieve excellent performance. Its chip, manufactured by the world’s leading wafer manufacturer with high quality and yield, has been well recognized and trusted by the mainstream manufacturers for more than ten years. Fortemedia has shipped over 1 billion MEMS sensors and microphone chips. In addition to providing highly competitive products, Fortemedia has been affirmed by top tier customers in terms of reliability, sustainability and supply capacity.

CONTACT: Jimmy Hsu, +886-2-2546-2100 #296, jhsu@fortemedia.com