Design of an implantable seismic sensor placed on the ossicular chain

Abstract

This paper presents a design guideline for matching a fully implantable middle ear microphone with the physiology of human hearing. The guideline defines the first natural frequency of a seismic sensor placed at the tip of the manubrium mallei with respect to the frequency-dependence hearing of the human ear as well as the deflection of the ossicular chain. A transducer designed in compliance with the guideline presented reduces the range of the output signal while preserving all information obtained by the ossicular chain. On top of a output signal compression, static deflections, which can mask the tiny motions of the ossicles, are reduced. For guideline verification, a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) based on silicon on insulator technology was produced and tested. This prototype is capable of resolving 0.4 pm/Hz with a custom made read-out circuit. For a bandwidth of 0.1 kHz, this deflection is comparable with the lower threshold of speech (≈ 40 phon).

Keywords: Implant; MEMS; Middle ear microphone; Seismic sensor.