A RESONANCE FREQUENCY ANALYSIS MODEL OF A CURVED BEAM DIAPHRAGM FOR THE EFFICIENT IMPROVEMENT OF BONE CONDUCTION HEARING AIDS

Abstract

Recently, the elderly population and excessive use of multimedia devices are increasing, which contribute to the growing number of patients with hearing loss. Hearing aids are used as a hearing rehabilitation method for patients with hearing loss and can be classified as air conduction and bone conduction according to the sound transmission pathway. Bone conduction is advantageous over sound transmission as it does not affect the eardrum. Bone conduction systems are divided into BAHA, Bone Bridge and B81 according to the vibration transmission method. BAHA has disadvantages as it can result in skin diseases and has inconveniences, and patients are reluctant to accept Bone Bridge because it has to be implanted into the temporal bone. Due to its location on the skin, B81 can solve these problems; however, this method may reduce transmission efficiency. In this paper, we have proposed a resonance frequency analysis model of a curved beam diaphragm to solve these problems. The proposed method involved a natural frequency equation with derived parameters. An improved efficiency (vibration transmission) was confirmed using the fabricated diaphragm. In the future, the proposed method may be used in various fields.