• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.678-684
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• 2018

In order to broaden the indication of middle ear implant, research has been actively conducted on the reverse output method that stimulates the round window. However, it is very difficult to transmit the vibration output effectively because the indivisual anatomical difference of the round window niche is very large and also the visual field is not secured even by a skilled otolaryngologic surgeon. In this paper, we propose a new reverse stimulation method of middle ear implants that transmits energy to the inner ear by using air as a medium. This can compensate for the disadvantages of the conventional method of transmitting vibration energy and minimizes the energy transfer efficiency interference due to the combination of the excitation point and the output device. It was shown that forward and backward transfer characteristics were obtained by cadaveric experiments, and it was shown that it can overcome the acoustical impedance of high round window and transmit energy to inner ear. The receiver, which is the output device of the conventional hearing aids, can generate a constant volume velocity, so it can have a high output at a limited volume, such as a round window niche. So, suggested method can overcome the high acoustical impedance of the round window and deliver acoustic energy to the inner ear.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.183-187
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• 2018

In this paper, we investigated the efficiency according to the output transmission method of the round window driving type AMEIs (active middle ear implants) through the cadaveric experiment. For the experiment, we fabricated DRT (direct rod transducer) and FMT (floating mass transducer) type vibrational transducers based on our previous studies and conducted their output characteristics were measured. TCBT (tri-coil bellows transducer) and DFMT (differential floating mass transducer) were implemented with the same driving force and electrical characteristics as one of DRT and FMT, respectively. In the experiment using three human temporal bone, normal stapes vibration was measured with 1 Pa in front of tympanic membrane, and then was compared with each output of transducers. From the comparison, the DRT type vibration transducer was superior in overall energy transfer efficiency, especially in the low frequency range. There was no difference in implantation difficulty between the two transducers. The results of this study suggest that the DRT type vibrational transducer is more efficient and needs further study to overcome the low frequency degradation in round window approaching with FMT.