SmartHeaP- A High-Level Programmable and Customized Hearing Aid System on Chip Integrated in a Research Hearing...

Area of Science:

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Biomedical Engineering
• Audiology

Background:

• Hearing loss is a prevalent sensory impairment affecting social interaction.
• Existing hearing aid research is limited by market restrictions and lack of portable platforms.
• Need for adaptable, personalized signal processing in behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids for real-world studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a fully embedded, BTE-sized hearing aid research platform.
• To present a novel, low-power System on Chip (SoC) for advanced hearing algorithms.
• To enable real-world studies on personalized hearing aid signal processing.

Main Methods:

• Development of a compact, 5-gram BTE hearing aid prototype with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Near Field Magnetic Induction (NFMI).
• Design of a custom mixed-signal application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), the Smart Hearing Aid Processor (SmartHeaP) SoC.
• Fabrication of the SoC using 22nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) technology with an adaptive body bias (ABB) unit and two ASIPs.

Main Results:

• The prototype offers up to nine hours of operation with state-of-the-art hearing algorithms.
• The SmartHeaP SoC achieves remarkably low power consumption (1.45 mW @ 5 MHz) for demanding algorithms like binaural beamforming.
• The SoC is high-level programmable, specifically tailored for hearing aid applications.

Conclusions:

• The presented BTE hearing aid prototype and SmartHeaP SoC provide a viable platform for advancing hearing aid research.
• This innovation facilitates real-world studies, potentially leading to enhanced personalized hearing solutions.
• The low-power, high-performance SoC is crucial for enabling sophisticated, portable hearing aid functionalities.