Magnet arrangement for bone conduction hearing implant

摘要

An implantable magnetic transducer arrangement is described for a hearing implant in a recipient patient. An implant housing hermetically encapsulates an interior housing volume and is fixedly attached to skull bone beneath the skin of the patient. A magnetic transducer is located within the housing volume and includes multiple permanent magnets wherein adjacent magnets have opposite magnetic polarities, and one or more suspension elements that resiliently couple adjacent magnets to allow their relative movement. The magnetic transducer forms a coupled oscillating system with an external magnetic drive component above the skin of the patient to develop a mechanical stimulation signal to the implant housing for delivery by bone conduction of the skull bone as an audio signal to the cochlea of the patient.