Press release

NXT launches audio amplifier module to transform USB-powered audio power and quality

18 August 2010: NXT plc, a provider of sound and touch products, has announced a high-efficiency, USB powered stereo amplifier module that delivers boost audio power of 15 Watts per channel from a standard USB port. Incorporating NXT’s recently acquired Audium amplifier chip technology, the DyadUSB amplifier module is matched to NXT’s Balanced Mode Radiator (BMR) speakers. BMRs utilise NXT’s patented Bending Wave Technology, combining flat panel and pistonic sound generation, and is used by its customers to produce compact, wide bandwidth, wide directivity loudspeakers. The optimisation for use with BMR drivers includes the option of on-chip digital filtering for acoustic voicing, bass enhancement, stereo widening as well as driver protection, and implementation of a Zobel network to accurately match the driver’s inductance to the amplifier’s output drive. BMR drivers are widely deployed in consumer audio products ranging from high-end audiophile loudspeakers to mass-market, flat panel televisions.

The DyadUSB platform can be designed into compact desktop and travel speakers to deliver HiFi in computer-centric applications, where an external power source is undesirable. It is an ideal technology for notebook and netbook add-on speaker applications, where minimal power consumption is needed to extend battery life without compromising on audio fidelity, as consumers increasingly use computing devices for music and video entertainment.

NXT's USB-powered, 30W-peak audio amplifier can be digitally tuned to match the characteristics of loudspeakers used with the company’s BMR bending wave drivers.

The DyadUSB platform has been announced less than 5 months after NXT acquired IP from Audium Semiconductor, developers of the amplifier chip upon which the design is based. The Audium device is up to 20 times more efficient than competing parts. The chip employs power rail switching so that it operates efficiently from a low voltage supply most of the time. A boost regulator delivers a higher operating voltage to the output transistors on audio peaks. Other patented techniques minimise fixed power losses and output-dependant variable losses.

James Lewis, NXT’s CEO, said, “This launch is the first significant step in transforming NXT’s business model to place greater emphasis on supplying components, modules and reference designs, in addition to licensing IP. This helps our customers to implement our technologies much more rapidly, enabling them to compete through innovation and differentiation in the very competitive consumer electronics market.”

The DyadUSB platform is currently being demonstrated to key customers and mass production is planned for early 2011. The amplifier, complete with a pair of 40mm x 40mm BMR drive units, will cost approximately $50 in 100+ quantities.