Noise spike on microphone amplification circuit

electretmicrophoneoscilloscope

I'm trying to build an electret mic amplification circuit. I see some weird spikes by just connecting the microphone like so:

5v ---^^^---------
     10kΩ)       |
                 |    
                 |
          MIC+------------probe signal

          MIC-
             |
-GND---------------------------probe gnd  

(^^^ = resistor)

The problem is that I'm getting some big spikes that I can't explain. The battery is 4xAA at around 5v, microphone is (this), probe attenuation x10, 1mV/div, 5uSec/div. Any ideas what these spikes might be? The specs of the mic say normal voltage 2V and I'm giving it 5V, could the mic be fried? Does seem to work when I speak, just there is hum when I amplify.

signal spike

UPDATE
I changed the 4xAA battery supply to a 3.3V linear regulator (UA78M33CKCS) and replaced the 10kΩ resistor with a 2.2k one. I now have around 0.3mA going to the microphone (0.5mA is the max). The spikes are much smaller but still big compared to the signal I get when I speak. The time div in this picture is 20μS/div.
My setup

Best Answer

The standard operating voltage for that microphone is 2.2 volts with a 2k2 resistor in series to a higher supply. Using 5V and a 10k might be a problem though. My advise is to lower the 10k to 2k2 - it is very doubtful if the microphone will be damaged by this because the current into the microphone will still be only a couple of mA. Make sure your battery polarity is correct of course.

If this does not work then it is highly likely that your electret microphone is dead.

Related Topic