Sub-mm encapsulated accelerometers: a fully implantable sensor for cochlear implants

Author

Park, Woo-Tae ; O´Connor, Kevin N. ; Mallon, Joseph R., Jr. ; Maetani, Toshiki ; Candler, Rob N. ; Ayanoor-Vitikkate, Vipin ; Roberson, Joseph B. ; Puria, Sunil ; Kenny, Thomas W.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. & Electr. Eng., Stanford Univ., CA, USA

Volume

1

fYear

2005

Firstpage

109

Abstract

We present, for the first time, a submillimeter sized fully packaged accelerometer as an alternative sensor for use in cochlear implants and middle ear implants. The sensor is as small as 387×387×230 μm and weighs approximately 100 μg. This miniaturization is realized by utilizing an advanced packaging scheme using a thick film encapsulation with epi-polysilicon. The sensor is attached on the middle ear ossicles and measures the vibration transmitted from the tympanic membrane due to the sound in the ear canal. The sensor is fully characterized on a human cadaveric temporal bone preparation.

Keywords

accelerometers; biomedical transducers; ear; encapsulation; hearing aids; microsensors; prosthetics; silicon; 230 micron; 387 micron; Si; cochlear implants; epi-polysilicon; implantable sensor; middle ear implants; middle ear ossicles; submillimeter encapsulated accelerometers; thick film encapsulation; tympanic membrane; Accelerometers; Acoustic sensors; Auditory implants; Cochlear implants; Ear; Encapsulation; Packaging; Sensor phenomena and characterization; Thick films; Vibration measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, 2005. Digest of Technical Papers. TRANSDUCERS '05. The 13th International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8994-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SENSOR.2005.1496371

Filename

1496371