Microvibration transducer using silicon elastic body for an implantable middle ear hearing aid

Evaluation of an implantable piezoelectric floating mass transducer for sensorineural hearing loss

“…However, despite such an easy surgical process, it is said that the FMT has the potential safety problem because of the interference with strong environmental electromagnetic fields such as MRI [20]. Recently, it has been reported that this kind of background electromagnetic interference can be significantly resolved by Cho et al through the use of a differential floating mass transducer [7][8][9]. But the assembling process for those kinds of electromagnetic transducers is complex because the transducer consists of about 10 components within a very small cylinder.…”

“…Cochlear implants can be applied to the patients who have severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss and need a careful training after implant surgery. An IMEHD that directly stimulates the ossicular chain in the middle ear using a miniaturized vibration actuator attached to the ossicle has been studied and developed since the 1970s as a new hearing aid to solve the problems of conventional air-conduction hearing aids [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

Biopolymers as Wound Healing Materials: Challenges and New Strategies

“…There are many different clinical applications of collagen. For example, collagen gel is often used to treat haemophilia patients due to its haemostatic effects (Tan et al, 2001;Lee et al, 2002;Ruszczak, 2003;Beckenstein et al, 2004). By using microsponge technology, which is a new type of pharmaceutical dosage form, collagenbased particles are clinically tested in the treatment of wounds and burns and were reported to have positive results compared with commercial preparations (Ruszczak, 2003;Beckenstein et al, 2004).…”

“…It has low toxicity, low allergic properties and high biocompatibility in the body (O'Donovan et al, 1999;Jansson & Tengvall, 2001). This polymer, which is resistant to biodegradation, is used in the preparation of implant elastomers used in soft tissue repair and in the production of hypodermic needles and syringes (Van den Kerckhove et al, 2001;Park et al, 2002). In addition, silicon is also often used as wound support material in severe wounds and burns due to its high tissue compatibility (Whelan, 2002;Losi et al, 2004).…”

Improved electromagnetic displacement transducer with large force for implantable middle ear hearing aid

“…In IMEHA approach, to amplify incoming sound for patients with sensory neural loss (or conduction hearing loss), a vibration transducer (that is driven by the electrical signal obtained from sound signal) is used to deliver vibration to stapes [I]. For such a vibration transducer, piezoelectric bimorph ceramic and electromagnetic drivers either without a contact or in one body shape have been developed [I-31. By taking advantage of solid-state manufacturing process and micromachining technology, we have fabricated integrated IMEHA structures (with minimal power consumption) that are small, robust, reliable and implantable [2,3]. However, so far the fabricated vibration transducer for IMHA is relatively large, and consumes large power [4] for in vivo experiment.…”