electret microphones & connecting.

I recently bought some Panasonic WM-61A electret microphones and found lots of discussion on the web about people modifying them to increasing dynamic range. The internal FET is normally connected as common source. The normal connection diagram of the microphone is;

,-----. | | 2.2k | | | o-------- output | | || electret|| D | ||diaphragm||--- G (FET) o + || || S 2.0V | | o - | | | `--------------------o-----'--- GND (case)

The modifications talked about suggest inserting a 10k resistor between source and GND and omitting the drain resistor by supplying 9V directly. This configuration would make the FET a voltage follower, and I would like to know exactly how this can achieve greater SPL from the device as claimed by others. I'm skeptical because there is no explanation.

To my own thinking the electret diaphragm can be modeled as a AC voltage source coupled to the gate via a small capacitance (around 10pF). Here the link to the Panasonic datasheet and a typical microphone FET from Sanyo.

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According to the Panasonic WM-61A specs of typical 0.018 V/pascal sensitivity with a 2.2k drain resistor then at an extreme sound of say

140dB SPL (or 20 pascals) this calculates to a AC drain current of 20*0.018/2200 = +-160uA.

In the conventional common source configuration, the FET is operated in saturated mode with Id = Idss. Looking at the Id vs Vgs graph of the above FET , it shows that a change in Id of about +-160uA. The curve in this range still remains relatively linear with respect to Vgs (the electret voltage). Miller capacitance cannot play a roll since the frequency response of the microphone remains flat in most of the audio spectrum. The typical forward transmittance of the FET is 1.2mS so a delta Id +-160uA corresponds to Vgs of +-130mV, which is also the electret driving voltage at 140dB SPL.

Now for the (modified) common drain configuration the FET operates as a voltage follower. At 140dB SPL the AC output voltage will be +-130mV and have a DC bias of 10kOhm*Idss or somewhere between 2 and 5. Anyone care to tell me if my calculation are wrong because I cannot see the advantage of the modified common drain FET configuration.

Reply to
Adam. Seychell
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This guy knows his stuff

martin

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martin griffith

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