Tzu Chi Medical Journal
Volume 20, Issue 2 , Pages 125-129, June 2008

Designing the Actuator of Hearing Aid Using Spiral Coils and Finite Element Analysis

  • Peir-Rong Chen

      Affiliations

    • Department of Otolaryngology, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan
    • Department of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Chia-Fone Lee

      Affiliations

    • Department of Otolaryngology, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan
    • Department of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan
    • Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Department of Otolaryngology, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, 707, Section 3, Chung-Yang Road, Hualien, Taiwan

Received 8 October 2007; received in revised form 24 October 2007; accepted 6 November 2007.

Abstract 

Objective

An electromagnetic vibration transducer was developed to be used as a hearing aid.

Materials and Methods

This type of electromagnetic transducer should have the following characteristics: small in size, high-energy efficiency and suitable frequency bandwidth. In order to find the output of electromagnetic force and to predict the frequency-amplitude characteristics, a finite element middle ear biomechanical model was used to derive the optimal magnetic force of the actuator in this study. First, the electromagnetic transducer was created using a computer-aided design. The air gap between the magnet and coil, input current and vibration force were calculated using finite element analysis simulation.

Results

Simulated results showed that electromagnetic forces under 1.0 mm air gap was about 5–25 dyne depending on the turns of coils and input current of the actuator.

Conclusion

The designed actuator could be used as transducers for middle ear implants or bone anchors in hearing aids.

Keywords:  Actuator , Finite element analysis , Hearing aids

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PII: S1016-3190(08)60022-1

doi:10.1016/S1016-3190(08)60022-1

Tzu Chi Medical Journal
Volume 20, Issue 2 , Pages 125-129, June 2008

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