The world's largest silicon microphone factory, exploring the stories behind 12 billion microphones

Last week, the reporter made a special trip to Suzhou to visit Knowles Electronics' factory in Suzhou, which is also the world's largest microphone production base, to explore the story behind the cumulative shipments of 12 billion microphones.

Knowles Electronics has factories in Suzhou and Malaysia for microphone products, with the Suzhou factory accounting for more than 60% of the group's total production.

In addition to the production of silicon microphones, the Suzhou factory is also responsible for the production of high-end ceramic capacitors, which are mainly used in aerospace, communications and medical fields. Knowles's dynamic armature units and hearing aid components are mainly produced in factories in the Philippines and Malaysia.

Knowles' Suzhou factory was established in Suzhou Industrial Park in 1996 and began producing silicon microphones in 2004. In 2015, Knowles Electronics moved to Suzhou Xiangcheng Economic Development Zone for scale upgrade, covering an area of ​​about 80 acres. With the gradual increase in production and sales, the Suzhou factory has become the main production site of Knowles Electronics microphones.

When I Love Audio Network walked into the microphone production workshop of Knowles Electronics, we found two very special things:

1. There are only about 300 people working in the workshop

2. The entire microphone workshop occupies only 1/3 of the total area of ​​Knowles Suzhou base

It is surprising how a workshop with hundreds of people can meet the needs of most of Knowles' global customers. So we went into the interior of Knowles Suzhou Factory with these two questions and had an in-depth communication with Mr. Lu Wenjie, Vice President of Product Management of Knowles Electronics Consumer Electronics Division China and Managing Director of China, to solve the doubts together.

Technology and Capacity of Knowles Microphone Production Line

Knowles Electronics Suzhou Factory has the most complete MEMS processing technology in the industry

Adopting fully automated semiconductor packaging line

Perform the most rigorous microphone testing system in the industry

It can provide a complete solution from silicon microphone application analysis, product design, process development, packaging testing to terminal product technical support, providing timely and efficient acoustic experience for customers in different fields.

The history of Knowles Electronics can be traced back to the 1840s

People had just emerged from the shadow of World War II, but many veterans who had returned home had suffered severe hearing loss or even deafness due to long-term artillery bombardment. The speakers of hearing aids at that time were very large, inconvenient to wear, and very heavy.

Based on this, Hugo Knowles, the founder of Knowles Electronics, invented the hearing aid, which brought great benefits to the vast number of deaf people.

Because hearing aids use small, highly sensitive moving iron units, they have the advantages of small size and easy to wear, and have received enthusiastic responses from veterans. From then on, moving iron units have become the best choice for hearing aid devices.

Hugo Knowles founded Knowles Electronics in Itasca, Illinois, USA in 1946.

How has Knowles developed so far? How has it positioned itself and how has it coordinated its layout?

After its establishment, Knowles Electronics has successively cooperated with many fields.

Since 1946, Knowles Group has continuously launched a variety of micro-acoustic, electromechanical and other related technology platforms to help customers expand their business potential. Knowles Group has its own unique technical advantages in acoustic research and has always been the largest supplier of parts in the hearing aid market. At the same time, Knowles Group has also applied its unique technology to the electronic consumer market (such as mobile phones, PDAs, PCs and laptops), providing microphone components, speakers, and products (such as headphones, USD interface audio adapters). The company has factories, branches and marketing centers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, etc.

Take the lead in developing smart microphones and lead the market development

In addition to traditional microphones, Knowles Electronics continues to innovate and provides very low-power intelligent voice solutions for many portable products that are currently developing very rapidly in the market, such as smart headphones and smart speakers.

Knowles' smart microphone is a product that integrates microphone and DSP, with industry-leading low power consumption. Through the smart microphone, manufacturers can use this platform to access other connection methods, such as Amazon and Google's smart voice services.

In addition, on June 12, 2019, Knowles and Amazon announced the first hand-free Bluetooth voice development kit.

AISonic smart microphone headset development kit is the world's first reference design certified by Amazon AVS. It fully complies with AMA specifications and can help OEM/ODM quickly develop products and bring them to market, providing consumers with a completely hands-free voice interaction experience.

Summarize

In 2018, Knowles Electronics' global sales reached RMB 5.6 billion, an increase of 11% over last year. To date, Knowles Electronics has shipped a total of 12 billion microphones, and this figure is still increasing year by year.

As the industry's leading provider of high-performance audio solutions, Knowles is injecting a new round of vitality into the market while providing better audio quality and enabling consumers to better control voice technology.