KR101222922B1 - Implantable microphone with acoustic pass - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A human body implantable microphone for having acoustic oscillator is provided to enhance a sound collecting rate of high-bandwit bill which reduce after the implantation by controlling a resonance frequency band according to the length of a sound tube. CONSTITUTION: A microphone comprises a vibrating film(200) which vibrates according to a sound transmitted from outer surface through skin, and a acoustic oscillator pipe(300) which transmits and resonates generated sound from the vibrating film. The microphone comprises an acoustic sensor(400) which transmits a sound transmitted through an acoustic oscillator into an electric signal. A human body implantable microphone comprises an acoustic sensor, a vibrating film, and a hermetically sealed type housing which surrounds for transplanting. The vibrating film comprises with a titanium vibrating film of a disk type.

Description

Implantable microphone with acoustic pass tube

The present invention relates to a human implantable microphone, and more particularly, a human implantable microphone having an acoustic resonator tube for improving the sensitivity of a voice high frequency band for improving sound intelligibility in a human implantable microphone device that can be used in an implantable hearing aid. It is about.

In the United States, the hearing loss population is about 16% of the total population, 30% of those over 65 years old, but more than 15 million people with hearing loss suffer from hearing loss and shame Is not used. In addition, hearing loss in the high frequency bands is mostly observed in older people.

However, conventional air conduction hearing aids do not adequately compensate for hearing loss or distortion due to high gains in patients with high hearing thresholds or sensorineural hearing loss having a hearing loss in a voice high frequency band of 1 kHz or more. In particular, the inability to distinguish between noise and dialogue is the biggest problem that appears in conventional hearing aids. In contrast, implantable hearing aids with a built-in microphone and an output transducer can overcome the problems of these hearing aids because they are picked up by the microphone and delivered to the middle ear bone or ovary of the inner ear instead of the ear canal.

Implantable hearing aids that have been commercially available until now are mostly microphones placed outside the body. In other words, the microphone is located at the back of the head near the ear to capture the external sound and transmit it to the hearing aid implanted in the body using a wired or wireless. This method can give a cosmetic rejection because the microphone is exposed to the outside of a man who does not have a lot of hair, and there is a risk of infection when a wired connection is made.

In recent years, in order to solve the cosmetic rejection and infection of the appearance as described above, a fully implantable hearing aid system that implants all systems from the implantable hearing aid to the microphone has emerged. In general, a fully implantable hearing aid microphone device is implanted in the temporal bone below the skin layer above the ear. Implantable microphones have been studied for use in hearing aids as well as for implantable microphones for the measurement of heart rate sounds and digestive organ activity.

The focus of the development of implantable microphones to date has been focused on the protection of the diaphragm and the housing structure that can be implanted into the body.

However, when implanted into the body, the sound attenuates as the skin penetrates the skin, and due to the low frequency filter characteristic of the skin, the sensitivity of the voice high frequency band of 1 kHz or more is significantly attenuated. This will lower the perception of the listener's speech.

In the related art, the present invention introduces the compensation of the frequency characteristics through the development of the implantable housing device and the improvement of the structure of the vibrating membrane, and the registration numbers 10-0610181 and 10-0896448 are the previously acquired patents to acquire the acoustic signal transmitted through the human body. The patent relates to an implantable microphone, but it discloses a structural improvement of the vibration membrane for improving speech recognition.

And, Patent Publication No. 10-2009-0104277 "Capsule endoscope and diagnostic system and method using the same" discloses a technique for capturing various acoustic signals generated inside the body by attaching an acoustic sensor inside the capsule endoscope, The patent does not provide a method for compensating the frequency of the high frequency band by collecting sound while moving the inside of the digestive tract rather than being implanted at a specific position, which is simply the inside of the capsule.

1 is an exploded view of a conventional implantable microphone, which is composed of a diaphragm, an acoustic sensor, and a feedthrough inside a cylindrical body. More specifically, the vibration membrane that touches the skin and collects the acoustic vibration signal, and the sound sensor according to the vibration of the vibration membrane are arranged to capture the sound effectively without sound pressure loss, and the feed-through which effectively extracts the signal to the outside ( Feedthrough).

As the conventional implanted microphone is implanted under the skin of 3 to 10 mm, sensitivity attenuation occurs due to skin passage of external sound, resulting in poor signal-to-noise ratio, and in particular, a lot of attenuation in the voice band high frequency region of 1 kHz or more occurs. There is also a problem that is worse.

An object of the present invention to solve the above problems is to provide a fully implantable implantable microphone for improving the word recognition of the implantable hearing aid or the human implantable microphone for medical devices using the acoustic signal collection in the body To provide a device.

A first aspect of the present invention to solve the above problem is a microphone, comprising: a vibration membrane vibrating according to a sound transmitted through the skin from the outside; An acoustic resonator tube resonating and propagating the sound generated by the vibration membrane; And an acoustic sensor that collects sound propagated through the acoustic resonance tube and converts the sound into an electrical signal.

Here, the acoustic resonator tube, it is preferable to form a straight or curved acoustic resonant tube path having a constant length to form the upper hole and the lower hole in the disc-shaped housing, connecting the holes, it is converted in the acoustic sensor It is preferable to further include an amplifier for amplifying the electrical signal.

In addition, it may be preferably to form a hole in the side of the acoustic resonator tube to connect the external input and output terminals, the circular ring to cover the side circumference on the upper part of the vibrating membrane, a circle formed with a plurality of holes on the circular ring It may further include a plate-shaped shield (shield net).

The second aspect of the present invention provides a microphone, comprising: a vibration membrane vibrating according to a sound transmitted through the skin from the outside; A disk-shaped air layer body which forms a hole and transmits the sound generated by the vibrating membrane; An acoustic resonator tube resonating and propagating the sound transmitted through the air layer body; And an acoustic sensor that collects sound propagated through the acoustic resonance tube and converts the sound into an electrical signal.

Here, the acoustic resonant tube is preferably formed in a horizontal or straight groove-shaped grooved pipe line in the horizontal direction starting from the point connected to the hole formed in the air layer body upper surface of the disk-shaped housing having a predetermined thickness, the acoustic sensor It is preferable to further include an amplifier for amplifying the converted electrical signal in.

In addition, it is preferable to further include a feedthrough for connecting the electrical signal to the outside through a hole formed in the side of the acoustic resonator tube (circular ring), the circular ring for covering the side circumference above the vibration membrane, and the circular ring It is preferable to further include a disk-shaped shield net formed with a plurality of holes on the top.

According to the present invention, the first, the implantable microphone device consisting of a vibrating membrane and a housing made of a implantable material under the human skin is capable of frequency compensation in the high frequency band, the resonant frequency band according to the length of the acoustic tube This improves the collection rate of high frequency speech that is adjusted and thus decreases after implantation.

Second, in the development of the structure of the microphone device that can be more precisely compensated by adjusting the resonant frequency by adjusting the length of the sound tube and is implantable under the human skin, the device is investigated by examining the characteristics according to the length and diameter of the sound tube. The device configuration is easy in that it can be developed by reflecting the design of the housing.

1 is an exploded view of a conventional implantable microphone,
2 is an exploded view of a human implantable microphone, as an embodiment according to the present invention;
Figure 3 is a schematic diagram showing the resonance phenomenon of the closed cylinder of the acoustic resonance tube characteristics applied to the present invention,
4 is an exploded view of a human implantable microphone, as another embodiment according to the present invention;
Figure 5 is a graph of the frequency response acoustic response appearing in the implantable microphone device according to the present invention in the air and water.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The advantages and features of the present invention, and how to accomplish it, will be described with reference to the embodiments described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described herein but may be embodied in other forms. The embodiments are provided so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the technical idea of the present invention to those skilled in the art.

In the drawings, embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the specific forms shown and are exaggerated for clarity. In addition, parts denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the specification represent the same components.

The expression "and / or" is used herein to mean including at least one of the components listed before and after. In addition, the singular also includes the plural unless specifically stated otherwise in the text. Also, components, steps, operations and elements referred to in the specification as " comprises "or" comprising " refer to the presence or addition of one or more other components, steps, operations, elements, and / or devices.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

2 is an exploded view of a human implantable microphone according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the microphone according to the present invention includes a vibrating membrane 200 which vibrates according to a sound transmitted through the skin from the outside; An acoustic resonance tube (300) for resonating and propagating the sound generated by the vibration membrane (200); And an acoustic sensor 400 that collects the sound propagated through the acoustic resonator tube 300 and converts the sound to an electrical signal.

As described above, the implantable hearing aid microphone device of which the human implantable microphone according to the present invention can have a more improved intelligibility in a noisy environment includes an acoustic sensor 400 and a diaphragm 200, and implantation. It is preferred to consist of a hermetically sealed housing enclosed for this purpose.

In addition, the acoustic sensor 400 element may be any microphone base element such as ECM or vibration measuring element using a piezoelectric phenomenon such as PZT, PMN-PT, the housing of the implantable microphone (not shown) is a device In order to ensure the human safety of the sound signal and vibration signal in a completely sealed state inside and outside has a structure that can be well transmitted to the sound sensor 400 inside.

Here, the vibrating membrane 200 preferably uses a disc-shaped titanium vibrating membrane 200. In addition, since the sound transmitted from the outside is transmitted to the internal electret condenser microphone (ECM) by vibrating the vibrating membrane 200, the size and thickness of the microphone vibrating membrane 200 is not only the sensitivity of the implantable microphone but also the membrane. It also affects the frequency.

[Equation 1] is a formula for the resonance frequency of the disk-shaped diaphragm.

f _p : Resonant frequency of microphone vibration membrane [Hz]

R: radius of the microphone diaphragm [m]

T : Tension of diaphragm [N / m]

m : Surface density of vibrating membrane [kg / m ² ]

According to [Equation 1], the resonance frequency of the microphone manufactured by the disk-shaped vibration membrane 200 decreases as the radius of the vibration membrane 200 increases and the density increases. The resonance frequency of the implanted microphone device due to the weight increase effect caused by the skin tissue placed on the vibrating membrane 200 together with the self-low frequency filter characteristics of the skin tissue when the implanted microphone device is implanted into the body Shows the phenomenon of shifting to the low frequency band.

This can compensate to some extent the resonance frequency shifted to the low frequency band by reducing the radius (R) of the film or increasing the tension (T). However, there is a limit to reducing the radius of the membrane since the overall sensitivity of the implanted microphone device is reduced. In addition, since the membrane material must use titanium or stainless steel, which is a bio-transplantable material, the tension cannot be increased indefinitely.

Therefore, the present invention proposes a method of compensating for the reduced sensitivity in the voice high frequency band by using the phenomenon of the acoustic resonator tube 300 rather than the frequency compensation method for adjusting the tension or density of the film. As shown in FIG. 2, a resonance chamber and an acoustic passage (acoustic resonance tube 300) are disposed between the vibration membrane 200 and the acoustic sensor 400 to use resonance of the tube.

Figure 3 is a schematic diagram showing the resonance phenomenon of the closed cylinder cylinder characteristics of the acoustic resonance tube applied to the present invention.

[Equation 2] is an equation showing the resonant frequency of the acoustic resonator tube.

f _t : resonant frequency of the pipe [Hz]

L: length of the pipe [m]

v : Speed of sound in air [m / sec]

d : Diameter of pipe [m]

n: odd integer [1, 3, 5, ...]

As shown in [Equation 2], considering the length and diameter of the acoustic path in the housing of the implantable microphone device according to the present invention, the sensitivity of the sound reaching the final acoustic sensor 400 is the acoustic resonance tube 300 By the resonance phenomenon of) can be compensated for the high-frequency band sensitivity that the sound is reduced when penetrating the skin. This improves the signal-to-noise ratio of the high frequency band above 1 kHz, where there are many consonants, compared to previous ported microphones.

That is, as shown in FIG. 2, when external sound enters through the skin, the sound is transmitted to the vibrating membrane 200 through a shield net, and the vibrating membrane 200 vibrates according to the sound. . After the acoustic wave propagates through the conduit 310 of the acoustic resonant tube due to the vibration of the vibrating membrane 200, the acoustic wave resonates in the conduit and passes, and then, the acoustic sensor 400 is installed on the lower surface of the acoustic resonant tube housing. Collects the passed acoustic waves and converts them into electrical signals. The converted electrical signal is amplified by an amplifier and connected to an external system through an input / output terminal (feedthrough) 550 connected through the acoustic resonator tube housing side.

Here, the acoustic resonator tube is formed in a disk shape having a predetermined thickness and connects the hole in the upper surface of the housing and the lower hole to form a straight or curved pipe line 310 so that acoustic waves can be transmitted by causing resonance. Here, the start and end points of the conduit may be any position if the upper and lower ends, but in order to secure a certain length of the conduit 310 and reduce the thickness of the acoustic resonance tube 300, the holes are preferably spaced apart at a predetermined distance in the horizontal direction. Do.

The shape of the conduit 310 may be formed in a variety of shapes, such as a straight line or a curve, it is preferable to ensure a certain length of the conduit 310 and the acoustic wave can be propagated without a specific resistance.

4 is an exploded view of a human implantable microphone according to another embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, the human implantable microphone device according to the present invention includes an acoustic sensor 400 such as an ECM, a vibration membrane 200, and a disc-shaped air layer body 350 for collecting signals in a housing implantable in a body. And an acoustic resonator tube 300.

Here, the acoustic resonator tube 300 has an acoustic tube (pipe) 310 having various shapes and diameters, such as a spiral or a straight line, between the vibration membrane 200 made of a material implantable in the body and the acoustic sensor 400. This structure uses the resonance phenomenon of. The acoustic signal collected by the acoustic sensor 400 is converted into an electrical signal, and the converted electrical signal is transmitted to the outside by the leader line feedthrough 550.

At this time, the external input and output terminals are surrounded by an insulating material to block the inside and the outside of the implantable microphone, and to ensure the human body compatibility for the internal sensor by maintaining a completely hermetic bonding state of the implanted microphone. In addition, the above structure is fixed to the front for fully hermetic bonding the front vibrating membrane 200 and the vibrating membrane 200 to the case in order to facilitate the transmission of external sound in the fully hermetic bonding situation of the implantable microphone according to the present invention It is preferable to include a cap and a rear fixing plate 600 for completely hermetically bonding the rear.

And, as shown in Figure 4, the grooved conduit (acoustic wave resonant conduit) 310 of the apparatus of the microphone according to an embodiment of the present invention may form a variety of straight or curved shapes. The sound of vibrating the vibrating membrane 200 through the skin is transmitted to the acoustic sensor 400 included in the housing through the various acoustic conduits 310 proposed in the figure. Since the resonance phenomenon varies according to the structure of the various acoustic pipes 310, the frequency capable of compensating the high frequency band can be appropriately adjusted by the resonance pipe theory and the practical experiment.

Unlike the embodiment of FIG. 2, the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 further includes an air layer body 350, which forms a grooved conduit in the upper surface of the housing of the acoustic resonator tube 300, and the upper surface thereof. When the plate-shaped air layer body 350 having a hole formed in a predetermined portion is placed, the acoustic wave generated by the vibration of the vibrating membrane 200 may be transmitted to the groove-type pipe line 310 through the hole. In addition, the air layer body 350 may have a stepped circumference, which is intended to provide a space for transmitting acoustic waves between the vibration membrane 200 and the air layer body 350.

The advantage of such a structure is that since the conduit is formed on a horizontal plane, there is an advantage that it is easy to form the groove-type conduit 310 and the length of the conduit is much easier to adjust. The hole corresponds to the inlet of the conduit 310 and is preferably formed at the center of the air layer body 350. This is because the center is most suitable for collecting sound waves generated by the vibration of the vibration membrane 200 with high yield without distortion. In addition, the hole of the air layer body 350 and the starting point of the grooved conduit 310 is preferably connected at the same position.

Figure 5 is a graph of the frequency response acoustic response appearing in the implantable microphone device according to the present invention in the air and water. Each of the three types of acoustic tube lengths of the implantable microphone device having a spiral acoustic path was measured in air and in water. In order to analyze the characteristics according to the length of the tube, a housing having a tube length of 20 and 30 mm was manufactured, and the experiment was replaced with water similar to that of the human skin to replace the skin permeation experiment of sound.

When the implanted microphone device enters the water, the sensitivity is reduced in the form of a second-order low-frequency filter with a resonant characteristic at 800-900 Hz with a generally flat low frequency band. In addition, the microphone device having two types of acoustic resonator tubes 300 compared to the black solid line without the acoustic resonator tubes 300 at a high frequency band of 1 kHz or more compensated for sensitivity of approximately 15 to 20 dB at each resonant frequency point. Effect appeared. The resonant characteristics of the implantable microphone device with a 20 mm long acoustic resonator tube 300 represented by a thin thin solid line in FIG. 5 appeared at about 3 kHz and the sensitivity of the microphone without the acoustic resonant tube 300 of the same frequency was observed. There was about 15 dB of gain compensation.

The implantable microphone device with a 30 mm long acoustic resonator tube 300, represented by a square, thin solid line, appeared at approximately 4.0 kHz and had a gain compensation of approximately 22 dB compared to a microphone without an acoustic tube of the same frequency. . As a result, the implantable microphone device having the acoustic resonator tube 300 according to the present invention can improve the recognition of the high frequency sound by the high frequency band sensitivity compensation due to the resonance characteristics of the high frequency band, compared to the device without the acoustic resonator tube 300. It can be clearly seen that.

As described above, the high frequency band frequency compensation method of the implantable microphone device using the acoustic resonator tube 300 according to the present invention is appropriately compensated for the high frequency region containing a lot of consonants compared to the conventional implantable microphone device. When used as an acoustic sensor 400 of the implantable hearing aid will contribute to noise discrimination efficiency or speech discrimination improvement.

In addition, the present invention can significantly improve the speech recognition deterioration phenomenon due to the high frequency band sensitivity attenuation that is recognized as a big problem at the time of transplantation, and the same effect even when applied to medical equipment for sound collection inside the human body, such as a heart sound measuring instrument. By capturing the sound of internal organisations, it is possible to prepare a breakthrough biography of hearing rehabilitation and new medical technology, and to reduce the time and economic social burden of developing new medical devices.

While the invention has been shown and described with respect to the specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Anyone with it will know easily.

100: shield net, 110: ring, 200: diaphragm, 350: air layer body
300: acoustic resonance tube, 310: pipeline, 350: air layer body, 400: acoustic sensor,
500: amplifier, 550: feed sur, 600: rear fixing plate

Claims (10)

In the microphone,
Vibrating membrane vibrating according to the sound transmitted through the skin from the outside;
An acoustic resonant tube which forms an upper hole and a lower hole in a disc housing and has a straight or curved acoustic resonator tube having a predetermined length connecting the holes, and resonates and propagates the sound generated by the vibrating membrane; And
And a sound sensor for collecting the sound propagated through the sound resonance tube and converting the sound into an electrical signal.
delete The method of claim 1,
The human implantable microphone, further comprising an amplifier for amplifying the electrical signal converted by the acoustic sensor.
The method of claim 1,
Implantable microphone, characterized in that for connecting the external input and output terminals by forming a hole in the side of the acoustic resonator tube.
The method of claim 1,
A circular ring covering the circumference of the upper side of the vibration membrane;
Human implantable microphone, characterized in that it further comprises a disk-shaped shield net (shield net) formed with a plurality of holes on the upper ring.
In the microphone,
Vibrating membrane vibrating according to the sound transmitted through the skin from the outside;
A disk-shaped air layer body which forms a hole and transmits the sound generated by the vibrating membrane;
An acoustic resonator tube resonating and propagating the sound transmitted through the air layer body; And
And a sound sensor for collecting the sound propagated through the sound resonance tube and converting the sound into an electrical signal.
The method according to claim 6,
The acoustic resonance tube is a human implantable microphone, characterized in that a horizontal straight or curved grooved conduit with a starting point connected to a hole formed in the disk-shaped housing upper surface having a predetermined thickness as a starting point.
8. The method according to claim 6 or 7,
The human implantable microphone, further comprising an amplifier for amplifying the electrical signal converted by the acoustic sensor.
9. The method of claim 8,
The human implantable microphone further comprises a feedthrough connecting the electrical signal to the outside through a hole formed in the side of the acoustic resonator tube.
8. The method according to claim 6 or 7,
A circular ring covering the circumference of the upper side of the vibration membrane;
Human implantable microphone, characterized in that it further comprises a disk-shaped shield net (shield net) formed with a plurality of holes on the upper ring.

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