The present invention relates to an assembly comprising an electrical element, such as a coil, and especially to an assembly more easily assembled. Assemblies of this type are used for receivers for hearing aids or sound generators for e.g. mobile telephones.

In a telephone alerter a transducer disc is held onto a printed circuit board by an annular housing which is detachable from the board. The housing has spaced feet which are received through apertures in the board and the housing is then rotated to engage the feet with one side of the board and hold the housing in position. The transducer disc is easily removed by rotating the housing in the opposite direction to withdraw it from the printed circuit board. Preferably, the disc is retained within the housing by an O-ring retainer which is compressed between the printed circuit board and the disc. Upon removal of the housing, the disc and retainer may then be immediately withdrawn from the housing.

This invention provides an electroacoustic transducer and a method of making it. The transducer according to the invention comprises a substrate of a semiconductor material with a recessed portion. A membrane is stretched across the recessed portion, which membrane is set in vibration in response to an input signal comprising audio and/or ultrasonorous frequencies. A pair of electrodes is provided, which form a capacitor, and between which an electric field is present. The electrodes are so arranged relatively to the membrane that the capacitance of the capacitor can vary under the influence of vibrations of the membrane, so that acoustic signals are converted into electric signals. A layer of an electrically insulating material functions as a carrier for an electric charge to provide an auxiliary electric field between the electrodes. The transducer is characterized in that the peripheral edge of the substrate, which is raised relatively to the recessed portion, has a set of openings formed in it, each extending through the substrate. The membrane is attached through the openings to the peripheral edge.

Capacitive sound transducer of a very small construction, in particular a microphone has at least two joint semiconductor chips, which embody a membrane unit and a fixed counter-electrode structure. The acoustic active portion of the membrane unit 1 with at least one counter-electrode structure 3, which is separated from the membrane unit by means of an air gap, forms a system which is comparable to a field effect transistor. The membrane unit which is formed of a semiconducting ground material encompasses an acoustically active membrane surface (2), one side 5 of which confronts the counter-electrode structure is electrically conductive. The counter-electrode structure 3 has a semiconductive base material out of which there is machined a channel length which has been limited by a source-drain arrangement, the geometric width measurrement of which is on the order of magnitude of a tenth of the lateral measurement of the active membrane surface.

An electromagnetic sound generator is mounted on a substrate. The electromagnetic sound generator has a case housing an electromagnet, which is formed by attaching a magnet and a coil to a yoke, and a vibrating plate disposed so as to face the electromagnet, and electrodes, to which terminals of the coil are connected, projecting outwardly of the case. The substrate has an accommodating portion conforming to the case, and substrate electrodes provided on the substrate surface at the circumference of the accommodating portion. The electromagnetic sound generator is mounted on the substrate by accommodating the case in the accommodating portion of the substrate and joining the electrodes of the electromagnetic sound generator to the substrate electrodes.