Rohm Develops New Sound Processor for Hi-Fidelity Car Audio and Navigation Systems

Rohm has recently announced that the company has developed a sound processor capable of high resolution audio playback for vehicle audio and navigation systems. The processor can perform volume adjustment and audio mixing to ensure high quality sound.

In recent years, tEVs and PHEVs have become more prevalent and such vehicles call for quieter cabins and higher resolution sound sources. Thus, audio SoCs, the basic unit of car audio systems need to work at lower voltages as there is need for greater level of process miniaturization. This reduces the range of audio signals that can be supported. The relative floor noise increases and after the SoC stage, there is need for low noise, high fidelity analog volume.

This led ROHM to expand its range of sound processors with the introduction of BD 34602FS-M. This processor uses sound quality design technology for high-fidelity audio. It unique properties include distortion as low as 0.004% and 3.1uVrms floor noise making it possible to extract the full data from sound sources, and improving spatial representation (location of sound source and perceived distance). The outcome is better car audio quality the adoption of high resolution sound sources and a reduction in cabin noise.