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Charge Movements on the Stretched Membrane in a Circular Electrostatic Push-Pull Loudspeaker

An analysis is made of the charge movements on the membrane of an electrostatic push-pull loudspeaker. It is shown that in steady-state operation (harmonic exitation) the movement of charge causes two important effects: harmonic distortion and a net change of static membrane charge. The former effect is found to be of minor interest in properly designed loudspeakers, whereas the latter causes the steady-state frequency characteristics to be input-level dependent. Measurements show that this level dependence may reach values well above 1-dB deviation from strictly linear behavior. A theoretical model is presented from which the charge distribution in a circular electrostatic push-pull loudspeaker can be calculated. The theoretical results are shown to conform with measurements.

Author: Streng, Johannes H.
Affiliation: Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
JAES Volume 38 Issue 5 pp. 331-339; May 1990 Import into BibTeX

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