Analysis of the dynamic behavior of flexible cabling
Project description: Today’s most advanced hearing prostheses such as cochlear implants feature an external unit to capture and process the sound signal to be delivered to the cochlea. Future cochlear implants should be totally implantable, which requires a sound or vibration sensor in the middle ear to be connected with a proper cable. While the vibration sensor is actually being prototyped the question of the cable and packaging of the sensor ist still to be solved. The requirements for such a cable are quite diverse, including high flexibility for almost the entire length but low flexibility at the terminals to prevent damage to the electrical connections, high puncture resistance to avoid damage during surgery, low water absorption, high electrical resistance of the isolator substrate, high conductivity of the wires, biocompatibility but repellent to tissue grow on the cable. Very high flexibility associated with a low mass is mandatory to prevent changes to the middle ear dynamics. Perylene based cables present themselves as viable options, but currently available parylene film cables suffer from different problems and might impose restrictions to the ossicular chain motion. The project aims to investigate the dynamics of such type of cables when coupled to the human middle ear by means of analytical and numerical models.
Coordinator/ Participants: Prof. Stephan Paul (coordinator); Vinicius Paegle (participant); Lucas Lobato (participant); Bruno van Bellen (participant)
