Magnet Arrangement for Bone Conduction Hearing Implant
An implantable magnet arrangement is described for a hearing implant in a recipient patient. A pair of implant magnets are fixable in a common plane beneath the skin of the patient to underlying skull bone. At least one of the magnets is adapted to transform a magnetic drive signal from an external signal drive coil into a corresponding mechanical stimulation signal for delivery by bone conduction of the skull bone as an audio signal to the cochlea. Each implant magnet includes a pair of internal magnets lying in parallel planes which meet along a common junction with repelling like magnetic polarities facing towards each other.
1 . An implantable magnet arrangement for a hearing implant in a recipient patient, the arrangement comprising:
a pair of implant magnets fixable in a common plane beneath the skin of the patient to underlying skull bone, at least one of the magnets being adapted to transform a magnetic drive signal from an external signal drive coil into a corresponding mechanical stimulation signal for delivery by bone conduction of the skull bone as an audio signal to the cochlea;
wherein each implant magnet comprises a pair of internal magnets lying in parallel planes which meet along a common junction with repelling like magnetic polarities facing towards each other.
2 . An implantable magnet arrangement according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a connector member flexibly connecting and positioning the implant magnets a fixed distance from each other.
3 . An implantable magnet arrangement according to claim 1 , wherein each implant magnet further comprises a magnet housing enclosing the pair of internal magnets.
4 . An implantable magnet arrangement according to claim 3 , wherein the magnet housing is made of titanium material.
5 . An implantable magnet arrangement according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a spacer insert lying along the common junction and separating the internal magnets.
6 . An implantable magnet arrangement according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a magnet connector nut and bolt combination holding the internal magnets together along the common junction.
7 . An implantable magnet arrangement according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the implant magnets is adapted for fixed attachment to the skull bone by a pair of radially opposed bone screws.
8 . An implantable magnet arrangement according to claim 1 , both of the implant magnets are adapted to transform the magnetic drive signal from the external signal drive coil into a corresponding mechanical stimulation signal for delivery by bone conduction of the skull bone as an audio signal to the cochlea.
9 . An implantable magnet arrangement according to claim 1 , wherein each internal magnet has a planar disk shape.
10 . A hearing implant system having an implantable magnet arrangement according to any of claims 1 - 9 .