Inductively-coupled control unit for fully implantable middle ear hearing devices

Recently, fully-implantable middle ear hearing devices (F-IMEHD) to enhance the hearing ability of auditory impaired persons have been developed in several countries. The implantable hearing device requires an external controller and a non-invasive power transmitter for recharging an internal battery of the device. This study shows the implementation of an inductively coupled control unit to be able to recharge the battery and transmit a control signal to the implanted device by designing the structure of coupled antennas and the data protocol using an on-off keying modulation. The implemented control unit has the advantages that it makes the implanted device reduce the power consumption and increase a recharging interval by externally supplying the power of a control signal receiver instead of using an internal battery. Through the experimental results, it has been verified that the implemented control unit has the performance of transmitting power and control signal to a F-IMEHD.