• 재활복지공학회논문지
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• 제2권1호
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• pp.27-33
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• 2009

일반적으로, 완전 이식형 인공중이의 이식형 마이크로폰은 측두골 부근에 이식되어진다. 이 경우, 마이크로폰의 진동막이 외부 충격이나 생체 노이즈의 영향 받을 수 있으며 이런 문제를 해결하기 위하여 이식용 마이크로폰을 외이도 내에 이식하는 방법을 고려할 수 있다. 그러나 이소골에 이식된 진동 트랜스듀서에 의해서 고막으로부터 외이도 방향으로 음향 반향이 발생할 가능성이 있다. 본 논문에서는 사람의 귀와 유사한 특성을 가지는 귀 모델을 제작하여 프로브 마이크로폰의 위치를 변경해가며 외이도의 음향 반향을 측정하였고 실험결과를 통하여 외이도 내에서의 마이크로폰의 이식 위치를 추정해 보았다. 분석 결과 외이도에 마이크로폰을 이식할 경우 고막에서 멀어질수록 반향 신호가 감소함을 확인할 수는 있었으나, 반향 신호를 완전히 제거할 수 없기 때문에 외이도에 마이크로폰을 이식하기에는 부적합한 것으로 예상된다.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제28권4호
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• pp.539-548
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• 2007

In the paper, a wireless charger with the function of auto-shutdown for fully implantale middle ear hearing devices (F-IMEHD) has been designed. The wireless charger can communicate with an implant module to be turned off automatically shutdown after an internal rechargeable battery has been fully-charged by electromagnetic coupling using two coils. For the communication with an implant module, the wireless charger uses the load shift keying (LSK) method. But, the variation of the mutual inductance due to the different distance between two coils can cause the communication error in receiving the fully-charged signal from an implant module. To solve the problem, the implemented wireless charger has a variable reference generator for LSK communication. The wireless charger generates proper level of the reference voltage for a comparator using an ADC (analog-to-digital converter) and a DAC (digital-to-analog converter). Through the result of experiment, it has been confirmed that the presented wireless charger can detect signals from implantable module. And wireless charger can stop generating electromagnetic flux after an implanted battery has been fully charged in spite of variable coil distance according to different skin thickness.

• 센서학회지
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• 제18권4호
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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.

• 한국멀티미디어학회논문지
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• 제19권2호
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• pp.375-385
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• 2016

Recently, several implantable hearing aids such as cochlear implant, middle ear implant, etc., which have a module receiving power and signal from outside the body, are frequently used to treat the hearing impaired patients. Most of implantable hearing aids are adopted permanent magnet pairs to couple between internal and external devices for the enhancement of power transmission. Generally, the internal device which containing the magnet in the center of receiving coil is implanted under the skin of human temporal bone. In case of MRI scanning of a patient with the implantable hearing aid, however, homogeneous magnetic fields of the MRI might be interfered by the implanted magnet. For the above reasons, the MR image is degraded by large area of artifact, so that diagnostics are almost impossible in deteriorated region. In this paper, we proposed an external coil system that can reduce the artifact of MR image due to the internal coupling magnet. By finite element analysis estimating area of MR artifact according to varying current and shape of the external coil, optimal coil parameters were extracted. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed external coil system was verified by confirming the artifact at real MRI scan.

• 재활복지공학회논문지
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• 제5권1호
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• pp.59-64
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• 2011

인공 중이 (IMEHD, implantable middle ear hearing device)용 플로팅 매스 트랜스듀서는 제작 과정상에서 발생하는 구조적 오차 및 제작 결합시의 문제점들로 인해 설계 시 의도와 다른 진동 특성을 가질 수 있게 되고, 이렇게 제작된 진동 트랜스듀서는 향후 실제 환자에게 이식되었을 때의 진동체 진동 성능을 예측하기 어려운 문제점이 있다. 본 연구에서는 제작된 플로팅 매스형 트랜스듀서에 대해 설계값과의 비교 평가 및 향후 컴퓨터 모델화된 청각 중이 집중 소자 모델에 적용이 가능하도록 기 제작된 진동체의 집중 소자 모델 파라미터들을 추정할 수 있는 방법을 제안하였으며, 제안된 방법을 LabVIEW 기반의 그래픽 유저 인터페이스 소프트웨어로 구현하였다. 제안된 방법은 실제 제작된 플로팅 매스형 진동체의 진동 변위 및 위상 데이터를 이용하여 해당 진동체의 집중 모델 파라미터들을 순차적 이차 프로그래밍 (SQP, sequential quadratic programming) 방법으로 추정하는 방식이다. 구현된 방법을 이용하여 측정 데이터에 가해지는 잡음의 양에 따른 플로팅 매스형 진동 트랜스듀서의 집중 모델 파라미터 추정 시의 발생 오차 변화를 컴퓨터 시뮬레이션을 통해 조사하여 본 방법의 파라미터 추정 정확도를 확인하였다. 또한, 실제로 제작한 인공중이용 진동 트랜스듀서에 대해 측정된 진동 변위 및 위상 데이터를 이용하여 진동체의 집중 모델 파라미터들을 추정하였으며, 기존 설계값들과 비교를 통해 제안된 방법의 유용성을 평가하였다.

• 센서학회지
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• 제27권2호
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• pp.99-104
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• 2018

A micro electromagnetic actuator with high vibration efficiency is proposed for use in an implantable hearing device. The actuator, which can be implanted in the middle ear, consists of membranes based on the stainless steel 304 (SUS-304), and other components. In conventional actuators, in which a thick membrane and a silicone elastomer are used, the size reduction was difficult. In order to miniaturize the size of the actuator, it is necessary to reduce the size of the actuation potion that generates the driving force, resulting in reduction of the electromagnetic force. In this paper, the electromagnetic actuator is further miniaturized by the metal membrane and the vibration amplitude is also optimized. The actuator designed according to the simulation results was fabricated by using micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) technology. In particular, a $20{\mu}m$ thick metal membrane was fabricated using the erosion process, which reduced the length of the actuator by more than $400{\mu}m$. In the experiments, the vibration displacement characteristics of the optimized actuator were above 400 nm within the range of 0.1 to 1 kHz when a current of $1mA_{rms}$ was applied to the coil.