OPTICAL WAVEGUIDE VIBRATION SENSOR FOR USE IN HEARING AID

摘要

A directionally-sensitive device (10) for detecting and processing vibration waves includes an array of polymeric optical waveguide resonators (28) positioned between a light source (24), such as an LED array (24), and a light detector (26), such as a photodiode array (26). The resonators (28) which are preferably oriented substantially perpendicularly with respect to incoming vibration waves, vibrate when a wave is detected, thus modulating light signals that are transmitted between the light source (24) and the light detector (26). The light detector (26) converts the modulated light into electrical signals which, in a preferred embodiment, are used to drive either the speaker of a hearing aid (32) or the electrode array (39) of a cochlear implant. The device (10) is manufactured using a combination of traditional semiconductor processes and polymer microfabrication techniques.