Cochlear implant with fully implantable microphone

Abstract

A cochlear implant has a microphone unit having a housing and a bone anchor attached thereto. The bone anchor is configured to secure the microphone unit to bone that surrounds a tympanic cavity of a user such that the microphone unit is positioned within the tympanic cavity. The implant includes a primary microphone mounted within the housing to receive acoustic energy from an external source. The implant also includes a processor in communication with the microphone unit. The processor is configured to process the acoustic energy and to generate an electrical signal corresponding to the acoustic energy. The implant also includes a plurality of electrodes mounted on a cochlea of the user and in communication with the processor. The processor activates one or more of the plurality of electrodes to correspond to the generated electrical signal to cause a hearing sensation for the user that corresponds to the acoustic energy.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.