Ceramic, Crystal, and Ribbon Microphones

Ceramic Microphones Ceramic and crystal microphones are some of the earliest microphones devised. Two plates of crystal or ceramic are sandwiched between two pieces of foil. When sound waves hit this sandwich, the plates twist, creating voltage. This voltage is the electrical representation of the sound waves.

Ceramic mics generally reproduce lower quality audio, but they are inexpensive. The most common use of ceramic microphones is in telephone headsets.

Ceramic MicrophoneCrystal Microphone

Ribbon Microphone The ribbon microphone works on the same principle as the dynamic microphone. It uses a thin metal ribbon suspended between the poles of a magnet to sense the sound wave. When the ribbon moves, it disturbs the magnetic field generated by the permanent magnet, and this induces a voltage in the ribbon. This voltage becomes the signal output

. This design is not commonly found in modern microphones, because the ribbon moves mechanically adding unwanted noise to the signal.

Ribbon Microphones