World's smallest microphone to benefit VoIP?

The clarity of VoIP improving further after a micro-sized microphone was announced by tech firm Akustica.

At just four by four millimetres, the firm's newest product is the world's smallest microphone - taking up 70 per cent less silicon area than other products on the market.

"Akustica has already made available a microphone with a smaller total silicon area than many people could have dreamed possible just a few years ago," said the firm's chief technology officer and co-founder Dr Ken Gabriel.

Akustica microphones already feature in a number of VoIP products, as well as laptops and mobile phones, but the company said the new product can deliver "true HD voice experience for VoIP and other speech applications".

The trick behind getting the new system down to such a small size comes from being able to merge the circuitry and the mechanical microphone structure onto one tiny single piece of silicon.

However, VoIP providers and users will have to wait for their chance to try out the new microphones as the first products will be released in the autumn.