Fully implantable, self-powered hearing aids with no external unit could significantly increase the life quality of patients suffering severe hearing loss. This highly demanding concept, however, requires a strongly miniaturized device which is fully implantable in the middle/inner ear and includes the following components: frequency selective microphone or accelerometer, energy harvesting device, speech processor, and cochlear multielectrode. Here we demonstrate a low volume, piezoelectric micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) cantilever array which is sensitive, even in the lower part of the voice frequency range (300–700 Hz). The test array consisting of 16 cantilevers has been fabricated by standard bulk micromachining using a Si-on-Insulator (SOI) wafer and aluminum nitride (AlN) as a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) and biocompatible piezoelectric material. The low frequency and low device footprint are ensured by Archimedean spiral geometry and Si seismic mass. Experimentally detected resonance frequencies were validated by an analytical model. The generated open circuit voltage (3–10 mV) is sufficient for the direct analog conversion of the signals for cochlear multielectrode implants.
Substrate bias was applied for AlN deposition on rolled Ni sheet during pulse DC reactive sputtering to overcome the difficulty caused by thermal expansion mismatch between Ni substrate and AlN upon substrate heating. It was shown by Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (PFM) that the quality of the deposited AlN layer depends strongly on the negative substrate bias, i.e., the energy transferred via the bombardment of the accelerated positive ions on the sample. As the negative substrate bias becomes larger, the so formed layer shows higher piezoresponse, and better homogeneity. A Z-cut LiNbO3 single crystal was used as a reference to correct the PFM signals. The highest average d33 piezoelectric coefficient value, achieved at − 100 V substrate bias, is 3.4 pm/V indicating the feasibility of AlN deposition on rolled Ni substrate for vibration energy harvesting applications.
We demonstrate a low-volume, stress-free, piezoelectric micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) cantilever array for fully implantable hearing aids. The 12-element spiral-matrix is sensitive to the lower part of audible frequency range (300–700 Hz) through the proper resonant frequency of the individual spirals tuned by dimensions of the cantilevers. The obtained high Q-factors (117–254) provide high frequency selectivity. The generated open circuit voltage signals could be sufficient for the direct analog conversion of the signals for cochlear multielectrode implants. By comparing different geometries we have also demonstrated that the initial stress, which is derived from silicon-dioxide (SiO2) and aluminum-nitride (AlN) layers, could be drastically reduced simply by the spiral geometry. The results of vibration measurements have shown a good agreement with the calculated resonant frequencies.
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