ITE hearing aid and method of manufacturing the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9992589-B2
Application number	US-201415128580-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 24, 2014
Priority date	Mar 24, 2014
Publication date	Jun 5, 2018
Grant date	Jun 5, 2018

Abstract

An ITE hearing aid having a shell worn at least partially in a user's ear canal, a faceplate closing the shell at a side oriented towards the exterior of the user's ear, and at least one microphone housed in the shell and acoustically connected to ambience via a sound port formed in the faceplate. The faceplate has a cover element covering a cavity of the sound port in a direction normal to a main plane of the faceplate and a lateral sound opening in a wall extending normal to the main plane. The cover element is elevated above a surface region surrounding the cover element, with the sound port wall extending between the cover element and this surface region. The shell is designed, with regard to shape and size, in a manner that the hearing aid is manually removable from the ear canal without the need to use a tool.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An ITE hearing aid, comprising:
a shell to be worn at least in part in an ear canal of a user,
a faceplate fixed to the shell for closing the shell at a side oriented towards the exterior of the user's ear, and
at least one microphone housed in the shell and acoustically connected to ambience via a sound port,
wherein the sound port is formed as one piece with the faceplate and comprises a cover element for covering a cavity of the sound port in a direction normal to a main plane of the faceplate, wherein the sound port comprises a sound opening, wherein said sound opening is laterally positioned in a wall and extends substantially normal to the main plane of the faceplate,
wherein the cover element is elevated above a surface region of the faceplate surrounding the cover element,
wherein said wall in which the lateral sound opening is located extends between the cover element and the surface region of the faceplate surrounding the cover element, and
wherein the shell has a shape and size that enables the hearing aid to be manually removable from the ear canal without use of a tool.

2. The hearing aid of claim 1 , wherein the sound opening is slot-shaped.

3. The hearing aid of claim 2 , wherein a longitudinal direction of the sound opening is substantially parallel to the main plane of the faceplate.

4. The hearing aid of claim 3 , wherein the sound opening is curved around a direction normal to the main plane of the faceplate.

5. The hearing aid of claim 1 , wherein the cover element is substantially flat.

6. The hearing aid of claim 1 , further comprising a manually operable user interface element extending through an interface opening in the faceplate.

7. The hearing aid of claim 6 , wherein the user interface element comprises a button operable in a direction normal to the main plane of the faceplate.

8. The hearing aid of claim 6 , wherein the faceplate comprises an opening covered by a battery lid.

9. The hearing aid of claim 6 , further comprising a volume control extending through an opening of the faceplate.

10. The hearing aid of claim 6 , wherein said at least one microphone comprises two microphones with a separate sound port being provided for each of the microphones.

11. The hearing aid of claim 10 , wherein the two sound ports are arranged substantially symmetrically with regard to the interface opening.

12. The hearing aid of claim 11 , wherein the distance between the sound openings of the sound ports is at least 6.0 mm.

13. The hearing aid of claim 1 , wherein the at least one microphone forms part of a microphone module fixed at the inner side of the faceplate.

14. The hearing aid claim 1 , wherein the cavity of the sound port has a volume of at least 1 mm 3 .

Assignees

• Sonova Ag

Inventors

• Ochsenbein André L
• Angst Jan
• Dittli Erich
• Perez Gabriel
• Probst Daniel

Classifications

• H04R25/604

  of acoustic or vibrational transducers · CPC title

• H04R25/658 Primary

  Manufacture of housing parts · CPC title

• H04R25/602

  of batteries · CPC title

• H04R2225/025

  In the ear hearing aids [ITE] hearing aids · CPC title

• H04R2225/61

  Aspects relating to mechanical or electronic switches or control elements, e.g. functioning · CPC title