DEVELOPMENT OF A SUBMINIATURE PARAMETRIC TRANSDUCER FOR HEARING REHABILITATION

Abstract

Hearing loss is becoming increasingly common due to the aging of society and the development of multimedia devices. Hearing loss is classified by hearing level, and patients require early diagnosis and rehabilitation. To overcome hearing loss, hearing aids are used, but conventional hearing aids have disadvantages that reduce the efficiency of speech transmission. In this paper, we proposed a subminiature ultrasonic transducer with a miniaturized parametric speaker. The transducer generates sound waves with high directionality. These sound waves are focused on the umbo located the center of the tympanic membrane and connected to ossicles of the middle ear. To generate sound waves, various parameters are considered, such as target distance, radiation area, and primary frequency. We tested the directionality of the proposed transducer using extracted parameters at audible frequencies. As a result, we confirmed high directionality and audible sound generated by the proposed transducer. The method can be expected to be applied to high-efficiency hearing rehabilitation devices and various multimedia devices.