Future iPads and iPhones may sport ‘vented resonators’

Future iPads and iPhones may sport “vented resonators, as evidenced by a newly granted Apple patent (number 11,451,902). 

About the patent

Electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets are often provided with speakers for generating sound output from the device. However, Apple says that, particularly as devices are implemented in ever smaller form factors, and as user demand for high quality audio increases, “it can be challenging to provide speakers that generate high quality sound, particularly in compact devices such as portable electronic devices.”

The tech giant’s proposed solution in the patent: audio transducers module with vented resonators. The speaker may provide a flattened response at high frequencies, by providing multiple resonators (e.g., Helmholtz resonators, or HHRs) acoustically coupled to the front volume of the speaker.

Summary of the patent

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “Aspects of the subject technology relate to electronic devices having speakers with vented resonators. A vented resonator may have a resonator chamber and a channel that fluidly couples a front volume of the speaker with the resonator chamber. 

“A vent such as a barometric vent may be disposed in a wall of the resonator chamber that separates the resonator chamber from the back volume of the speaker. The barometric vent may thus allow airflow from the front volume to the back volume via the resonator chamber, and prevent fluid flow from the front volume to the back volume via the resonator chamber.”