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Electret condenser microphone capsules

A typical electret microphone preamp circuit uses an FET in a common source configuration. The two-terminal electret capsule contains an FET which must be externally powered by supply voltage V₊. The resistor sets the gain and output impedance. The audio signal appears at the output, after a DC-blocking capacitor.

An electret microphone is a relatively new type of condenser microphone, which eliminates the need for a high-voltage bias supply by using a permanently-charged material.

An electret is a stable dielectric material with a permanently-embedded static electric charge (which, due to the high resistance of the material, will not decay for hundreds of years). The name comes from electrostatic and magnet; drawing analogy to the formation of a magnet by alignment of magnetic domains in a piece of iron.

Electret materials have existed since the 1920s, and were proposed as condenser microphone elements several times, but were considered impractical until the foil electret type was invented at Bell laboratories in 1962 by Gerhard Sessler and Jim West, using a thin metallized Teflon foil.[1] This became the most common type, used in many applications from high-quality recording and lavalier use to built-in microphones in small sound recording devices and telephones.

Though electret mics were once considered low-cost and low quality, the best ones can now rival capacitor mics in every respect apart from low noise and can even have the long-term stability and ultra-flat response needed for a measuring microphone. There are three major types of microphone, depending on the way the electret material is used:

Foil-type or diaphragm-type 

A film of electret material is used as the diaphragm itself. This is the most common type, but also the lowest quality, since the electret material doesn't make a very good diaphragm.

Back electret 

An electret film is applied to the back plate of the microphone capsule and the diaphragm is made of a superior, uncharged material.

Front electret 

In this newer type, the back plate is eliminated from the design, and the condenser is formed by the diaphragm and the inside surface of the capsule. The electret film is adhered to the inside front cover and the metalized diaphragm is connected to the input of the FET.

Unlike other condenser microphones they require no polarising voltage, but normally contain an integrated preamplifier which does require power (often incorrectly called polarizing power or bias). This preamp is frequently phantom powered in sound reinforcement and studio applications.

While few electret microphones rival the best DC-polarized units in terms of noise level, this is not due to any inherent limitation of the electret. Rather, mass production techniques needed to produce electrets cheaply don't lend themselves to the precision needed to produce the highest quality microphones.

• Electret condenser Microphone structure and theory introduction
• Guide for Electret Condenser Microphones
• Rane schematic
• Integrated Circuits for High Performance Electret Microphones — Audio Engineering Society Convention Paper
• Foil Electret Microphone: Sessler & West (1960)
• Modern electret microphones and their applications