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Two of the Top Ten Patents in Nanotechnology at Crowley & Tripp
While real innovation in the professional microphone world has been increasingly difficult to find lately, there are still a few companies willing to push the envelope and try something new.
Well-known in the pro audio industry for their novel approach to ribbon microphones, Crowley and Tripp also have a lesser-known side. What most people don't know is that Soundwave Research Laboratories, the company behind Crowley and Tripp microphones, has a sister company in the same facility called Ambit Corporation. Ambit is an intellectual property and technology development company focused on research of new methods and materials, specifically nanotechnology. Nanotechnology includes things like carbon nanotubes and also micro circuits for computers, and other advanced systems and materials that are expected to impact the products we buy in the future. In 2006, Ambit was awarded two new patents, and, it turns out, these two patents made a list of the Top Ten most important nanotech patents of the year, occupying the 7th and 2nd spots on the charts.
The two patents from Ambit selected by patent analyst Blaise Mouttet on his
TinyTechIP blog include one for nanotubes used in nano-actuators, nano-motors, and another basic patent for nanotubes used in light sensors and communication devices, like cell phones. Ambit is in good company on this elite list, with the likes of Agilent Technologies, Canon, and even MIT.
In terms of applying such technology towards professional microphone development, Crowley describes that one of the advantages of ribbon microphones is that they have a low acoustic impedance and thus "go with the flow" of the sound energy from the source. The thin-film membranes and carbon nanotubes can be made to operate in a similar manner. But it goes further than that. According to Crowley, "Carbon nanotubes can be grown onto a silicon substrate, almost like grass on a lawn. The resulting structure is not unlike the inner ear. The first nano-enabled mics have been built and have been in use for a while. There are several more varieties to be done and we have to be sure the performance, sound, long term stability and economics are right."
This relationship to the design of the human ear has special importance to Crowley. "There are only certain things about sound we can analyze with test equipment, but many more things that we can hear. Interestingly, the ear is only the first half of the hearing apparatus, with the brain being the other half." Crowley and Tripp is currently analyzing how such new materials and structures can translate sound into signal, with at least the same fidelity, bandwidth and low noise as current designs, and with improvements in durability and consistency.
As great as these new technologies might be for future products, even the current ribbon microphone technology offered by Crowley and Tripp, such as their Naked Eye and Proscenium microphones, have achieved status among more traditional peers. Silas Brown of Legacy Sound, recording engineer on the recent Grammy-nominated recording of the Imani Winds adds, "The Crowley and Tripps were the only new ribbon microphones used on the quintet and they were in there with some really heavy contenders - some very highly regarded mics! They more than held their own."
Crowley and Tripp Microphones is far more than simply another new professional audio manufacturer. Since 2004, Bob Crowley and Hugh Tripp have officially joined forces in Soundwave Research Laboratories, a firm that manufactures and sells acoustic devices for professional audio, and scientific applications. Although new as a company, Soundwave Research Laboratories has decades of experience in designing and building groundbreaking products. For many years, the duo often collaborated while both were employed at Boston Scientific Corporation. Along with audio transducer development, other key areas of expertise at Soundwave Research
Laboratories include medical device development, tissue characterization techniques for identifying cancerous cells, and intellectual property development and licensing.
5th February 2007
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