Moisture resistant headpieces and implantable cochlear stimulation systems including the same
AssigneeAdvanced Bionics AG
InventorManish Vaishya
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Cochlear implant headpieces with improved moisture resistance. The headpiece comprises a housing (102) including a housing microphone aperture (124), a microphone (108) within the housing, a membrane (148) between the housing microphone aperture and the microphone, a cap (104) including a sound port (158) and a shield (168), the cap being removably connectable to the housing and the headpiece being protected from particulate and moisture ingress.
Claims26
A cochlear implant headpiece, comprising:
- a housing including a housing microphone aperture;
- a microphone carried within the housing and associated with the housing microphone aperture;
- a membrane between the housing microphone aperture and the microphone;
- and
- a cap, including a sound port and a shield over the sound port, configured to be positioned on the housing such that the sound port and shield are aligned with the housing microphone aperture;
- wherein the housing and cap are configured such that they will be removably connected to one another when the cap is positioned on the housing.
A cochlear implant headpiece, comprising:
- a housing including an internal volume and a housing microphone aperture that extends to the internal volume;
- and
- a microphone carried within the housing internal volume and aligned with the housing microphone aperture;
- wherein the internal volume is protected against particulate and moisture ingress to an extent greater than that required by IEC IP67.
A cochlear implant headpiece, comprising:
- a housing configured to be worn on a user's head;
- a transmitter carried by the housing;
- and
- a connector, carried by the housing and operably connected to the transmitter, including
- an electrically conductive barrel,
- an electrically conductive socket,
- an electrical insulator between the barrel and the socket,
- a first seal compressed between the barrel and the insulator, and
- a second seal compressed between the socket and the insulator.
A method of manufacturing a cochlear implant headpiece, including a microphone aperture and a microphone having an internal volume mounted adjacent to the microphone aperture, that can be submerged in water without damage to the microphone to a predetermined maximum depth, the method comprising the steps of:
- calculating the volume of the microphone aperture according to the formula:
- VAPERTURE>(WPMAX/AP)VMIC−VMIC
- where,
- VAPERTURE=microphone aperture volume,
- WPMAX=water pressure at the predetermined maximum depth,
- AP=atmospheric pressure, and
- VMIC=internal microphone volume;
- and
- forming a microphone aperture of the calculated size.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.