Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
  • H04R25/00—Deaf-aid sets, i.e. electro-acoustic or electro-mechanical hearing aids; Electric tinnitus maskers providing an auditory perception
  • H04R25/60—Mounting or interconnection of hearing aid parts, e.g. inside tips, housings or to ossicles
  • H04R25/604—Mounting or interconnection of hearing aid parts, e.g. inside tips, housings or to ossicles of acoustic or vibrational transducers
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
  • H04R25/00—Deaf-aid sets, i.e. electro-acoustic or electro-mechanical hearing aids; Electric tinnitus maskers providing an auditory perception
  • H04R25/45—Prevention of acoustic reaction, i.e. acoustic oscillatory feedback
  • H04R25/456—Prevention of acoustic reaction, i.e. acoustic oscillatory feedback mechanically
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
  • H04R25/00—Deaf-aid sets, i.e. electro-acoustic or electro-mechanical hearing aids; Electric tinnitus maskers providing an auditory perception
  • H04R25/60—Mounting or interconnection of hearing aid parts, e.g. inside tips, housings or to ossicles

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a device for damped storage of electronic components according to the preamble of claim 1 and a method for producing an integral, damping storage with a device.
• the present invention is a construction for the storage of electro-acoustic transducers or other electronic components in electronic micro devices, such as hearing aids.
• electronic components such as a handset or electro-acoustic transducer
• rubber mounts are usually attached directly to the electronic component, glued or slipped over this and define the contact surface with the rest of the electronic micro device, such as a hearing aid structure.
• connection lines to the component such as a sound conduit, are usually required, which connects the component to the surrounding environment, such as the acoustic environment, and often also has a mechanical support function.
• the well-known rubber bearings have three functions:
• EP 1 249 496 describes a multi-part receiver bearing, which takes into account the force distribution on the listener surface by using rubber parts with different stiffness.
• US 47 29 451 an integrated storage of a handset and an in-ear hearing aid is described. An earpiece dummy is placed in an individual bowl and the bowl tip is filled with a pourable rubber material. After drying, the dummy is removed leaving behind an integrated cavity, which serves as a receiver storage.
• EP 1 316 239 generically describes the use of multi-component injection molding technology for hearing aids on the basis of some examples of use. These are seals on the housing, sound channels for sound inlet and outlet and an elastic receiving cavity for transducers.
• WO00 / 79835 shows a behind-the-ear hearing device in which an electrical / acoustic converter unit is provided with a loudspeaker housing, wherein the housing is resiliently mounted in an encapsulation such that encapsulation and loudspeaker housing define a gap.
• the rubber parts used are relatively expensive to produce and a consistency of material properties (stiffness, damping) is not always guaranteed because of the small amounts of vulcanizate.
• a storage for to develop electronic components, such as a transducer, in a micro-electronic device, such as a hearing aid which meets the main requirements below, namely to ensure vibration isolation of the component and a shock absorption in the event of a shock.
• the device for the damped storage of electronic components in a single or multi-part receiving housing of a micro electronic device is that an along, at least on parts of the inner wall of the receiving housing arranged elastic and / or flexible retaining element is provided, with in the direction of the interior the receiving inwardly projecting storage areas for in-situ bearings or holding the component in the receptacle.
• the device according to the invention for damping basically has two functions, namely the provision of vibration isolation on the one hand and shock absorption on the other hand. It has been found that for vibration isolation, the storage should have a low to very low stiffness and low attenuation. By contrast, contrary to the vibration isolation for shock absorption, storage must be much stiffer, with much higher internal damping of the material being desirable.
• the receptacle is coated or lined at least in part with an elastically soft and / or flexible material, elevations projecting from the layer being provided. These elevations may be ridge, cone, knob-like elevations, with, for example, pointed, dull or rounded bearing surfaces for the electronic component.
• the lining or the holding element may consist of the same material as the above storage areas or protrusions protruding from the layer or for the storage areas or elevations, a different material may be selected to meet the above-mentioned, different requirements to cope with vibration isolation and shock absorption.
• the holding element or the lining as well as the elevations or storage areas may consist of a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE).
• TPE thermoplastic elastomer
• block copolymers such as, for example, a styrene elastomer (TPE-S) or a polymer blend such as a polyolefin elastomer (TPE-O) have been found.
• TPE-S styrene elastomer
• TPE-O polyolefin elastomer
• TPE-U thermoplastic polyurethane
• vulcanizates such as silicone rubber, etc.
• the retaining element can be produced, for example by means of injection molding, having the bearing areas and subsequently introduced into a receiving housing.
• the holding element or the elastic coating can in turn directly, for example by injection molding in a already existing receiving housing are entered, which receiving housing in turn may consist of a thermosetting or thermoplastic polymer.
• FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a storage of an electronic component according to the prior art
• Fig. 7a - 7d examples of damping elements suitable for a damping arrangement.
• the basis of the proposed invention is that the storage is integrated into the housing of the electronic device, such as the hearing aid, as shown in Figures 1 and 2 described below using the example of a listener storage.
• the main difference between the prior art shown in Figure 1 is that the bearing is no longer mounted on the transducer but becomes part of the hearing aid housing, as shown in Figure 2.
• FIG. 1 shows schematically in section a transducer 1 which is arranged in a corresponding hearing device housing 3.
• a rubber bearing 5 is provided, comprising outwardly projecting support ribs 7 for point storage.
• the transducer 1 as shown in Figure 2 is no longer stored in a rubber pad 5, but is "free” on support ribs 17, which is part of a damping insert, which is arranged directly on the inner surface of the hearing aid housing 3.
• This in turn has a rubber pad 15, with inwardly projecting support ribs 17 for point storage.
• the cavity in the hearing aid which accommodates the transducer, lined with a layer of a soft, elastic material which has sufficient wall thickness and rigidity to meet the above-mentioned requirements for shock absorption. From this layer protrude various conical or rib-like elevations 17, which provide for a defined positioning of the transducer 1. Due to the design of these support elements 17 whose rigidity can be adjusted in the direction of optimal vibration isolation. For example, these elements can be designed to be loaded primarily on thrust rather than pressure, resulting in much lower stiffness.
• a concrete application example of the invention will be shown below and with reference to FIG. 3:
• a receiver bearing is being developed, which is introduced directly into the hearing aid housing, for example, by means of a 2K injection molding process.
• the housing 3 is designed in several parts and in each part is a part of the integrated storage. This integrated storage has the following characteristics:
• the primary bearing 25 made by a thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) by injection molding.
• TPE thermoplastic elastomer
• the storage is integrated directly into the housing 3 in one operation by means of 2K spray technology.
• the bearing 25 has enough wall thickness to intercept a shock.
• the material has an average hardness and low resiliency, preferably having a Shore hardness in the range of 30 to 60.
• An example of this is a thermoplastic elastomer based on SEBS (styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene).
• the transducer rests on a plurality of thin tips 27, which have a very low rigidity.
• the storage has lateral support ribs 28, which serve to fix the transducer.
• the transducer can now be entered into the cavity provided for this purpose in the multi-part hearing device housing produced in this way.
• the housing further has an opening 21 for sound channel, sound tube, connections, etc.
• the bearing is integrated in a second operation in the housing, which must be inserted for this in an injection mold.
• connection between the bearing and the housing is supported not only by the pure adhesion but also by mechanical anchoring. That can be done by mechanical
• Design elements holes, rear handles, etc.
• the material of the storage consists of a hot vulcanised silicone, which is also processed by injection molding.
• the storage also includes a seal of the housing and / or a seal of the sound outlet 21 at the same time.
• FIG. 1 Due to the configuration and the position of the support ribs 28 and support tips 27, a statically balanced storage can be established. It can be taken into account the fact that the excitation of the listener is not symmetrical. This approach is shown schematically in FIG. Due to the internal structure of the transducer, the center of mass M or 14 is outside its geometric center. In order nevertheless to achieve a statically balanced storage, the support tips can be designed so that, for example, support tip 18, which is closer to the center of mass, has a higher rigidity than the other tip 16. This can of course theoretically be achieved with today's bearings, but In this case, the installation specifications become even narrower because the symmetry of the bearings is eliminated.
• Figure 5 shows in section a further embodiment of an inventive damping arrangement for the storage of an electronic component 1.
• a damping layer 15 is disposed in the rigid receiving wall 3 of a micro electronic device, consisting of an elastic material, as described above.
• inwardly projecting projections 17 are also provided for supporting the component 1.
• air pockets 31 are formed in the inwardly projecting projections 17 to provide an additional damping effect.
• These damping air pockets 31 may be formed relatively small as shown in Fig. 5 or as shown schematically in Fig. 6 and provided with the reference numeral 35 may be formed such that the inwardly projecting projection 37 is formed like a pillow or leaf spring. On the one hand, this can increase the damping effect, but on the other hand, this reduces the storage stability.
• FIG. 5 Further recognizable in FIG. 5 are rear handles 33, which allow a better connection or even a non-adhesive connection between the damping layer 15 and the rigid housing wall 3.
• FIGS. 7a to 7d Illustrated in FIGS. 7a to 7d are examples of inwardly projecting projections 17 which are intended to demonstrate that any shapes are possible for achieving suitable damping or to be selected as required.
• 7a shows a cone-like projection
• FIG. 7b shows a rib
• FIG. 7c shows a cushion-like or leaf-spring-like damping element 17 analogous to FIG.
• a leaf spring-like damping element 17 is shown in Fig. 7d, which is arranged in a corner region of the receiving housing 3.
• a cavity 35 is provided.
• the advantages of the present invention are that the manufacturing costs for the damping storage can be reduced:
• the assembly effort is significantly reduced by integrating the bearings, as not only the soft rubber mountings must be individually drawn over the transducer, but the converter can be easily inserted into the space provided for this purpose.
• statically balanced bearings can be realized more easily, without elaborate installation instructions created or additional rubber parts must be mounted.
• damping devices or bearings shown with reference to FIGS. 1 to 7 are only examples of the better understanding of the present invention.
• the bearings or dampings are of course not limited to the illustrated examples, but it can also be used different bearings or damping devices, which for example have different wall thicknesses, different stiffnesses of the materials, different geometries or embodiments of projecting storage areas or elevations, different manufacturing techniques, etc., etc.
• the essence of the present invention is that the damping element or the damping bearing is arranged on the housing inner wall of the electronic construction device for positioning and holding an electronic component, wherein the damping Element facing the interior and has projecting storage areas.

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• Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
• Neurosurgery (AREA)
• Otolaryngology (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Vibration Prevention Devices (AREA)
• Casings For Electric Apparatus (AREA)
• Mounting Components In General For Electric Apparatus (AREA)

Priority Applications (3)

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Publications (2)

Family

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Family Applications (1)

Country Status (3)

Cited By (8)

Citations (5)

Family Cites Families (7)

• 2006
  • 2006-11-09 DK DK06804864.4T patent/DK2087769T3/da active
  • 2006-11-09 WO PCT/CH2006/000630 patent/WO2007038897A2/de active Application Filing
  • 2006-11-09 EP EP06804864.4A patent/EP2087769B1/de active Active

Patent Citations (5)

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