Vibration transmissibility of unimorph piezoelectric actuator on flexible substrate for conductive hearing aids

Courtney D. Bradley; Miriam Redleaf; Mohammad J. Moghimi

doi:10.1117/12.2657657

6 March 2023 Vibration transmissibility of unimorph piezoelectric actuator on flexible substrate for conductive hearing aids

Courtney D. Bradley, Miriam Redleaf, Mohammad J. Moghimi

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 12374, Microfluidics, BioMEMS, and Medical Microsystems XXI; 1237409 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2657657
Event: SPIE BiOS, 2023, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Implantable conductive hearing aids are invasive for infants’ fragile cranial cortices, and the nonsurgical rigid aids often become displaced and may cause skin irritation for pediatric patients. Micro-epidermal actuators on a flexible substrate generate vibrations on the surface of the skin for noninvasive Band-Aid©-like conductive hearing aids. However, the major challenges are to increase the strength of vibration transmission to the cranial cortex from the thin actuator and to overcome vibration damping due to flexible substrate and soft skin. Here we designed and fabricated two micro epidermal actuators to increase coupling from the actuator to the bone. We used a laser Doppler vibrometer to measure the transmissibility of vibrations for a piezoelectric actuator. We also measured the mode of vibrations and acceleration for two designs. Our results show that vibrations are transmitted from the actuator to a rigid foundation more efficiently when a piezoelectric actuator is embedded into the flexible substrate.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Courtney D. Bradley, Miriam Redleaf, and Mohammad J. Moghimi "Vibration transmissibility of unimorph piezoelectric actuator on flexible substrate for conductive hearing aids", Proc. SPIE 12374, Microfluidics, BioMEMS, and Medical Microsystems XXI, 1237409 (6 March 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2657657

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