Liu Houguang, Wang Hehe, Rao Zhushi, Yang Jianhua, Yang Shanguo
School of Mechatronic Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China.
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibrations, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Micromachines (Basel). 2019 Jan 9;10(1):40. doi: 10.3390/mi10010040.
Round window (RW) stimulation is a new application of middle ear implants for treating hearing loss, especially for those with middle ear disease. However, most reports on it are based on the use of the floating mass transducer (FMT), which was not originally designed for round window stimulation. The mismatch of the FMT's diameter and the round window membrane's diameter and the uncontrollable preload of the transducer, leads to a high variability in its clinical outcomes. Accordingly, a new piezoelectric transducer for the round-window-stimulating-type middle ear implant is proposed in this paper. The transducer consists of a piezoelectric stack, a flextensional amplifier, a coupling rod, a salver, a plate, a titanium housing and a supporting spring. Based on a constructed coupling finite element model of the human ear and the transducer, the influences of the transducer design parameters on its performance were analyzed. The optimal structure of the supporting spring, which determines the transducer's resonance frequency, was ascertained. The results demonstrate that our designed transducer generates better output than the FMT, especially at low frequency. Besides this, the power consumption of the transducer was significantly decreased compared with a recently reported RW-stimulating piezoelectric transducer.
圆窗（RW）刺激是中耳植入物治疗听力损失的一种新应用，尤其适用于患有中耳疾病的患者。然而，大多数关于它的报告都是基于浮动质量换能器（FMT）的使用，而该换能器最初并非为圆窗刺激设计。FMT的直径与圆窗膜的直径不匹配以及换能器不可控的预载，导致其临床结果具有高度变异性。因此，本文提出了一种用于圆窗刺激型中耳植入物的新型压电换能器。该换能器由压电叠堆、弯张放大器、耦合杆、托盘、平板、钛制外壳和支撑弹簧组成。基于构建的人耳与换能器的耦合有限元模型，分析了换能器设计参数对其性能的影响。确定了决定换能器共振频率的支撑弹簧的最佳结构。结果表明，我们设计的换能器产生的输出比FMT更好，尤其是在低频时。除此之外，与最近报道的用于圆窗刺激的压电换能器相比，该换能器的功耗显著降低。
