gms | German Medical Science

88th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

24.05. - 27.05.2017, Erfurt

Article

Send article

Experimental investigation of the performance of piezoelectric actuators in a cochlea test rig

Meeting Abstract

Search Medline for

  • corresponding author Wouter J. van Drunen - Medizinische Hochschule Hannover / HNO, Hannover
  • Sarra Kacha Lachheb - Leibniz Universität Hannover / Institute of Dynamics and Vibration Research, Hannover
  • Anatoly Glukhovskoy - Leibniz Universität Hannover / Institute for Micro Production Technology, Garbsen
  • Jens Twiefel - Leibniz Universität Hannover / Institute of Dynamics and Vibration Research, Hannover
  • Marc C. Wurz - Leibniz Universität Hannover / Institute for Micro Production Technology, Garbsen
  • Thomas Lenarz - Medizinische Hochschule Hannover / HNO, Hannover
  • Thomas S. Rau - Medizinische Hochschule Hannover / HNO, Hannover
  • Omid Majdani - Medizinische Hochschule Hannover / HNO, Hannover

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. 88. Jahresversammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. Erfurt, 24.-27.05.2017. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2017. Doc17hno426

doi: 10.3205/17hno426, urn:nbn:de:0183-17hno4266

Published: April 13, 2017

© 2017 van Drunen et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

Text

Goal: Within the field of hearing prostheses several different devices are available which are applied depending on the kind and severity of hearing deficits experienced by the individual patient. For patients with residual hearing the combination of a hearing aid with a cochlea implant (EAS - electric acoustic stimulation) results in the best quality of hearing perception. In order to optimize EAS, ongoing research focusses on the integration of these stimuli in a single device.

Methods: Different inner ear actuator concepts were analyzed before yielding piezoelectric bimorphs as the most feasible one for basilar membrane (BM) stimulation from within the scala tympani. For the experimental validation of the numerical results presented previously, the actuator performance in the cochlea test rig was evaluated.

Results and outlook: The experimental analysis for different stimulation frequencies and different locations shows two local BM oscillation peaks, one at the actuator position and one according to the tonotopic cochlea map. Thus confirming our previously presented numerical findings that non-resonant stimulation induces two local BM oscillation maxima, allowing one to stimulate even at those positions where no actuator is present. These results are the border stone for further experimental analysis with multiple actuators as well as miniaturization of mechanical actuators for integration into CI electrodes.

Unterstützt durch: This work is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all

Der Erstautor gibt keinen Interessenkonflikt an.