• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.286-293
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• 2009

The implantable middle ear hearing devices(IMEHDs) have been developed to overcome the conventional hearing aid's problem(ringing effect caused by the acoustic feedback, cosmetic problem, etc.). In the IMEHDs, the vibrating transducer is a key component because its vibration enables to hear for hearing impaired people. The vibrating transducer is implanted on ossicular chain by surgical operation. The coupling status between implanted transducer and ossicular chain has an effect on delivering vibrating force from transducer to stapes. Noninvasive method is required to investigate the output characteristics of IMEHDs after implementation. Recently, emitted sound pressure measuring method of tympanic membrane is proposed to investigate the output characteristics of IMEHDs. However, the relationship between displacement of stapes and sound pressure by tympanic membrane was not cleared. In this paper, displacement of stapes and sound pressure by tympanic membrane were measured using the differential floating mass transducer(DFMT) that implanted on the ossicular chain of the human temporal bone and physical ear model. Through the experiments results, the relationship between displacement of stapes and sound pressure by tympanic membrane was investigated.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.32-39
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• 2009

In this paper, system optimization design technique of an impulse ground penetrating image radar (GPIR) in time domain is proposed to improve depth resolution of the system. For the purpose, time domain analysis method of key components such as impulse generator and UWB antenna is explained and by simulation, parameters of each component are determined. In particular, by standardizing the impulse signal, spectrum efficiency of a radiated impulse signal is improved and a U-shaped planar dipole antenna for a UWB antenna is developed. By equipping a parabolic metal reflector with the proposed antenna, external noise is prevented and the ability of radiating an input impulse into ground is improved. In addition, to remove ringing effect of the propose antenna which causes serious degradation of the system performance, resistors are loaded at the edge of the antenna and then Tx and Rx UWB antennas are optimized by simulation in time domain. For images of targets buried under the ground migration technique is applied and influence of tough ground surface on distortion of received impulse signals is reduced using technique of noise and signal distortion reduction in time domain and its time resolution is enhanced. To verify the design optimization procedure, a prototype of an GPIR and an artificial test field are made. Measurement results show that the resolution of the system designed is as good as that of a theoretical model.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.217-225
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• 2002

The implantable middle ear(IME) system, which has good sound quality. superior sound intelligibility and wide frequency characteristics. can resolve the sound distortion and ringing effect by sound feedback at high gain operation those are the major problems of conventional hearing aid. In this paper, we have manufactured the IME system using differential electromagnetic transducer(DET) and verified the performance of the system by carrying out vibration and animal implanting experiment. The DET was manufactured using micro-machining technology and vibration experiment of the transducer was performed to inspect whether the transducer could vibrate in accordance with the applied sound signal or not. And the result of the loaded experiment using temporal bone sampled from cadaver showed that the transducer can drive the middle ear bone and transmit the signal to inner ear After the internal unit of IME system was implanted in a dog. the auditory brainstem response (ABR) test was carried out. The result of the test indicated the Proper behavior of the IME system in the living body From the results of the experiments, it is verified that the manufactured system ewll work well when it is applied to human and a basis of clinical experiment of IME system to real human hearing impaired was be arranged.