Many users find themselves very often annoyed by their smartphone's or headset's microphone, especially in high background noise situations, but STMicroelectronics' new MEMS microphones promise to change this as it uses omni-directional sensitivity to detect and filter out background noise.

These new microphones target a wide range of devices, including cell phones, portable media players, gaming solutions, digital cameras, and other gadgets that require a high sound quality.

In noisy and uncontrollable environments the sound quality can be further improved by adding more microphones inside the device, this sort of arrays offering the higher sensitivity required for detecting and filtering background noise.

Although STMicroelectronics' promises for this new MEMS microphones sound really good, manufacturers are equally interested in price, especially when there are other solutions available.

However, ST says their MEMS offerings, that uses less vibration susceptible sensor technology from OMRON, meet price points set by the traditional electret condenser microphones, while boasting superior reliability and robustness.

Samples of ST's MP45DT01 MEMS microphone are available and volume production is starting now, unit pricing being set at $1 for volumes in the range of 10,000 pieces.

Of course, that all that sounds really nice, but we will have to wait and see if manufacturers feel the same way about ST's new microphones.

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