Medical implant actuator with mass configured to mitigate eddy currents
AssigneeCochlear Limited
InventorKoen Erik Van den Heuvel
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus includes a housing configured to be implanted beneath a portion of skin of a recipient and first circuitry within the housing. The first circuitry is configured to wirelessly communicate with second circuitry of an external device positioned on or above the portion of skin. The apparatus further includes an actuator within the housing and configured to be in mechanical communication with a portion of bone of the recipient. The actuator includes a unitary mass configured to undergo vibratory motion within the housing. The unitary mass includes a plurality of electrically conductive sub-masses in mechanical communication with one another and electrically isolated from one another.
Claims23
(canceled)
An apparatus comprising:
- a housing configured to be implanted beneath a skin portion of a recipient;
- and
- an actuator within the housing and configured to be in mechanical communication with a portion of bone of the recipient, the actuator comprising:
- at least one piezoelectric element configured to undergo deformations in response to received time-varying electric voltage signals;
- and
- a unitary mass in mechanical communication with the at least one piezoelectric element, the unitary mass configured to undergo oscillatory motion within the housing in response to the deformations of the at least one piezoelectric element, the unitary mass having a substantially circular shape.
An apparatus comprising:
- an implantable actuator configured to be in mechanical communication with a bone portion of the recipient, the actuator comprising:
- a piezoelectric disk;
- and
- a monolithic mass in mechanical communication with a peripheral portion of the piezoelectric disk, the monolithic mass configured to oscillate in response to vibrations of the piezoelectric disk, a peripheral portion of the monolithic mass having a substantially circular ring segment shape.
An assembly comprising:
- an external device configured to be positioned outside a recipient's body;
- and
- an implantable device configured to be implanted on or within the recipient's body, the implantable device comprising a piezoelectric actuator comprising a disk-shaped mass.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.