Fortemedia Unveils iSAM's Business Model and Advantages

SINGAPORE, Jan. 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fortemedia Singapore PTE. LTD., the global leader of voice integration solutions, today announce the latest generation of microphone solutions and voice algorithms. Fortemedia's integrated solution can provide customers with optimized audio quality and voice noise suppression process- iSAM®, equipped with this iSAM® advantage of the business model, the integration of voice computing capabilities and high-performance audio microphones, as the human brain with ears, 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, Internet of Things products, etc. It enables customer's product to quickly integrate into voice cloud with higher voice quality. Through the 3CT technology, Fortemedia not only makes the microphone product easy to design, but also with its own array microphone voice algorithm, it can greatly increase the reliability and approach 0 ppm of defect rate in the system. In terms of performance, 3CT technology can further improve the voice performance by additional 6dB of signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. In addition, Test Bench®, Pre-test and Virtual Lab® of Fortemedia allow customers to increase their acoustic laboratories in simulation. With these, verification time can be largely reduced, the time to market (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, applying to 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 the miniature of MEMS microphone for narrow bezel models, but also provides voice quality that can pass variety of standards defined by the latest Microsoft RTC (Real-Time Communication).

The benefits and advantages of the iSAM ® technology is that with adoption of SAMTester's unique 3CT technology, the microphone manufacture becomes efficient and faster 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 of MEMS microphone solution microphone, Fortemedia is set to launch the smallest size of digital microphone solution at 2.7x1.8x0.9mm³ this year (2022), with ultra-high performance of signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio, providing customers that requests small size, high performance such as smart phones and TWS, etc. iSAM® microphone solution integrating with ForteVoice® voice processing can clearly distinguish required signals out of noises, realizing acoustic scene identification in different kinds of environments.. With AI machine learning into voice processing technologies, it delivers unprecedented voice experiences in real-time phone call for maintaining high-quality voice communication along with delivering advanced beamforming and acoustic awareness. In addition to the 2.7x1.8x0.9mm³ size digital microphone solution, Fortemedia is 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 on the system, and can improve the far-field pickup (FFP) by more than 10 dB. With this HD array microphone, which is expected to be launched next year (2023), end users can enjoy higher level of voice experience.

In addition to self-detection, 3CT technology can complement Fortemedia's voice algorithm, by providing arrays of phase-matched microphones, which can improve end-products with additional 6dB of SNR. In terms of system reliability enhancement, Fortemedia's voice technology can also adjust the array microphone algorithm for the situation that a microphone is damaged or unable to receive any sound due to being blocked by external unexpected objects such as dusts or ashes. ForteVoice can turn off the damaged or mis operated microphone, and convert the voice input function to other normal microphone, so that the call can continue and maintain a certain voice quality, contributing nearly 0 ppm of the defect rate of end products systematically.

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. Accompanied with Fortemedia's software, a system-level calibration via mutual test and communication amongst microphones and speaker output components can be further matched on the end-product.

Compensation
After the MEMS microphone is calibrated, the software of the iSAM® automatically compensates for slight offsets during assembly, making the microphone more reliable after assembly. By Fortemedia's software processing, further compensation can be conducted, enabling system-level matching amongst array microphones on 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 embedded with arrays of microphones. Furthermore, by interfacing and configuring each array microphone in sensitivity, AOP and other features, high-definition performance of SNR, AOP, and bandwidth on the system can be achieved accordingly.

Fortemedia also understands that the 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 of product development periods (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.

In terms of notebooks, Fortemedia's Test Bench® and Virtual Lab® give full play to the extreme. As product cycle of the notebook market is fast with kinds of various product models and specification/standards to comply, using Fortemedia's Test Bench® can pass Teams (Microsoft), Cortana (Microsoft), Alexa (Amazon) and specifications in Microsoft ecosystem efficiently. The efficiency can be increased by five times, the use of manpower can be reduced by more than half, and the use efficiency of the laboratory can be increased by two times, greatly shortening the verification time, compared to traditional test that takes several months. Through three key steps (recording, simulation, and verification) of Test Bench® of Fortemedia, performance tuning time can be reduced to only a few days. Among them, one key step, Pre-Test can assist notebook product to confirm the fitness of frequency response and phase matching of array microphone in the mechanism in advanced before the test, so that the acoustic mechanism design of customer products can be completed at one time, and the overall development efficiency can be greatly improved.

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 listed 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 the 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 without 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 connect to the cloud via loud and clear voice."

About Fortemedia Singapore PTE. LTD.

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 evidence of consistent and quantity in shipment. 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. On the other than, this trend also drives the market demand for MEMS microphones. Further expanding the business scope, Fortemedia has developed solutions for MEMS microphone sensors combined with chips of analog and digital interface respectively in recent years for its 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 extremely 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.

SOURCE Fortemedia Singapore PTE. LTD.