Technical design of a new bone conduction implant (BCI) system.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is to describe the technical design and verify the technical performance of a new bone conduction implant (BCI) system.


DESIGN
The BCI consists of an external audio processor and an implanted unit called the bridging bone conductor. These two units use an inductive link to communicate with each other through the intact skin in order to drive an implanted transducer.


STUDY SAMPLE
In this study, the design of the full BCI system has been described and verified on a skull simulator and on real patients.


RESULTS
It was found that the maximum output force (peak 107 dB re 1 μN) of the BCI is robust for skin thickness range of 2-8 mm and that the total harmonic distortion is below 8% in the speech frequency range for 70 dB input sound pressure level. The current consumption is 7.5 mA, which corresponds to 5-7 days use with a single battery.


CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that the BCI is a robust design that gives a sufficiently high output and an excellent sound quality for the hearing rehabilitation of indicated patients.
['Taghavi|Hamidreza|H|', 'Håkansson|Bo|B|', 'Reinfeldt|Sabine|S|', 'Eeg-Olofsson|Måns|M|', 'Jansson|Karl-Johan Fredén|KJ|', 'Håkansson|Emil|E|', 'Nasri|Bayan|B|']
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation D001302:Audiometry, Speech D001309:Auditory Threshold D001844:Bone Conduction D006310:Hearing Aids D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural D006801:Humans D008422:Materials Testing D008953:Models, Anatomic D019986:Persons With Hearing Impairments D011474:Prosthesis Design D019919:Prosthesis Implantation D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted D013065:Speech Intelligibility D013067:Speech Perception
Bone conduction implant inductive links implanted transducer bone anchored hearing aid long-term implantation