Wolfson - Ambient noise cancellation technology for mobile phones

Wolfson's myZone ANC technology has previously been deployed in leading headset designs, including those from Audio-Technica and Nokia, using a combination of discrete components and proprietary algorithms. The WM2000 represents the first single chip version of this technology, now delivering highly effective myZone(tm) noise cancellation for mobile phones, in the smallest and most cost-effective ANC solution on the market today.

The WM2000 enables Wolfson's highly effective ANC technology to be applied to mobile phones for the first time. Wolfson's revolutionary feed-forward myZone ANC technology removes the need for a bulky sealed enclosure over the ear, on which many ANC headphone solutions rely, making it perfect for mobile phones, commented Kevin Carey, ANC Business Development Manager at Wolfson. Wolfson's WM2000 incorporates technologies developed specifically for mobile phones that bring the benefit of increased call intelligibility to users who have to make or take calls in noisy places. It's easily applied to phone designs to create products that are more suited for our increasingly noisy environment and mobile lifestyles.

Wolfson's WM2000 has been designed specifically to work in any handset platform design, regardless of form factor. The device is inserted between the output signal and the receiver circuit in the phone, with minimal architecture changes. Wolfson provides in-depth acoustic design support and component recommendations to ensure optimal noise cancellation performance.

Whilst there are many technologies addressing the challenges of transmit path noise reduction for improved call intelligibility, myZone ANC applies active ambient noise cancellation to improve the user receive experience. It does this successfully and effectively without artificially boosting parts of the receive path frequency spectrum. It can do this across a wide noise cancellation bandwidth, from 300Hz to 2.5 kHz, and delivers up to 20dB of typical ambient noise reduction. The WM2000 offers significant improvements in intelligibility in noisy environments making the difference between having a intelligible conversation or not.

Wolfson myZone ANC is highly power efficient, only switching on when required, reducing power consumption and increasing battery life. When noise cancellation is enabled the WM2000 adds 20mW to a voice call and on standby power is 8µW.