| 摘要 |
A low-cost, multichannel cochlear stimulation system utilizes a passive, non-hermetically sealed, implantable receiver/electrode array and an external wearable processor. At one end of the receiver/electrode array, positioned subcutaneously near the surface of skin above the ear, multiple receiving coils are arranged in an appropriate pattern. At the other end, which is adapted for insertion into the spiral-shaped cochlea, electrodes are spaced apart along the spiral. Each electrode is electrically connected to a respective receiving coil in a monopolar or bipolar fashion. The wearable processor senses audible sounds, converts the sensed sounds to corresponding electrical signals, and divides the electrical signals into multiple frequency bands or channels. A continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) speech processing strategy applies the processed signals of each channel to each of multiple external coils, one coil for each channel, as a series of narrow, rapid, biphasic current pulses. The external coils are aligned, using a suitable headpiece, with corresponding coils of the receiver/electrode array. The narrow CIS pulses contain sufficiently high frequency components to inductively couple the biphasic current pulses directly to the aligned implanted coils without having to modulate a high frequency carrier signal with the biphasic pulses. The induced voltage at the implanted coils causes the biphasic current pulse to appear at a respective electrode of the implanted electrode array, thereby providing electrical stimulation at the cochlea as a function of sensed audible sounds. |
