HEARING AID, IN PARTICULAR IN-THE-EAR HEARING AID

Abstract

A hearing aid, in particular an in-the-ear hearing aid, includes a device housing having a housing shell insertable into an auditory canal and a housing front plate closing the housing shell. A battery is accommodated in the device housing. A signal processing device having a ground plane is disposed at least in sections between the battery and the housing front plate. An antenna device, having at least two folded antenna arms, is disposed between the ground plane and the housing front plate. The antenna arms extend as three-dimensional spirals or helices along a height direction perpendicular to the ground plane, and have at least one turn or pitch. The antenna arms are electrically connected to one another by antenna poles spaced apart from the ground plane.

Claims

1. A hearing aid or an in-the-ear hearing aid, comprising: a device housing having a housing shell insertable into an auditory canal, said device housing having a housing front plate closing said housing shell; a battery accommodated in said device housing; a signal processing device having a ground plane, said signal processing device disposed at least in sections between said battery and said housing front plate; and an antenna device having at least two folded antenna arms, said antenna device disposed between said ground plane and said housing front plate; said antenna arms extending as three-dimensional spirals or helices along a height direction perpendicular to said ground plane, and said antenna arms having at least one turn or pitch; and said antenna arms having antenna poles spaced apart from said ground plane, said antenna poles electrically connecting said antenna arms to one another.

2. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said antenna arms of said antenna device are disposed rotationally symmetrically in relation to one another with respect to the height direction.

3. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said antenna device has precisely three of said antenna arms.

4. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said antenna device has a hollow body overlapping said ground plane, and said antenna arms are disposed on a surface of said hollow body.

5. The hearing aid according to claim 4, wherein said hollow body is formed of an electrically nonconductive material.

6. The hearing aid according to claim 4, wherein said hollow body is formed of a plastic material suitable for laser direct structuring, and said antenna arms are laser direct structured to said hollow body.

7. The hearing aid according to claim 4, wherein said hollow body is cylindrical, said antenna arms are guided in a helix shape on a lateral surface of said cylindrical hollow body, and a ring conductor electrically connects said antenna poles to one another.

8. The hearing aid according to claim 4, wherein said hollow body is hemispherical, said antenna arms are guided in a spiral shape on a sphere surface of said hemispherical hollow body, and said hollow body has a conductive contact surface electrically connecting said antenna poles to one another.

9. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said housing front plate has an outwardly directed bulge, and said antenna device form-lockingly engages in said outwardly directed bulge.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0026] FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic, perspective view of an ITE hearing aid;

[0027] FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the ITE hearing aid;

[0028] FIG. 3 is a detailed perspective view of an antenna device and a battery of the hearing aid;

[0029] FIG. 4 is a side-elevational view of the antenna device and the battery;

[0030] FIG. 5 is a top-plan view of the antenna device;

[0031] FIG. 6 is a detailed perspective view of a second embodiment of the antenna device and the battery;

[0032] FIG. 7 is a top-plan view of the second embodiment of the antenna device;

[0033] FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the second embodiment of the antenna device having a hollow body;

[0034] FIG. 9 is a sectional view of the hollow body;

[0035] FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a third embodiment of the antenna device; and

[0036] FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the third embodiment of the antenna device having a hollow body.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0037] Referring now in detail to the figures of the drawings, in which parts and dimensions corresponding to one another are always provided with the same reference numerals, and first, particularly, to FIGS. 1 and 2 thereof, there is seen a hearing aid 2 configured as an ITE hearing aid. The hearing aid 2 includes a housing shell (shell 4), which is adapted individually to an auditory canal of a hearing aid user and is closed by a cover-like housing front plate (faceplate) 6. In a device housing 8 formed by the housing shell 4 and the housing front plate 6, an installation space is accommodated, in which hearing aid components of the hearing aid 2 are disposed. A signal processing device 10 and a (hearing aid) battery 12 as well as a transceiver unit (transceiver) 14 for electromagnetic waves are shown in the figures by way of example.

[0038] The housing shell 4 and the housing front plate 6 can be embodied as separate components. A one-piece, thus integral or monolithic, device housing 8 is also conceivable.

[0039] The signal processing device 10 has in this case a motherboard having a printed circuit board (PCB) 16. The printed circuit board 16 has in this case an integrated ground plane 18 as a radio-frequency ground plane (RF ground plane). The approximately U-shaped printed circuit board 16 encloses the battery 12 at least in sections in this case, so that an arrangement which is compact with respect to installation space is implemented.

[0040] The transceiver unit 14 has two antenna devices 20, 22.

[0041] The antenna device 20 is embodied as a magnetic induction antenna and is disposed on one of the vertical U legs of the printed circuit board 16. The antenna device 20 is provided in this case, for example, for a wireless ear-to-ear connection (e2e) in a binaural hearing aid 2.

[0042] The antenna device 22 is suitable and configured, for example, for a wireless 2.4 GHz Bluetooth signal transmission in an ISM frequency band. The antenna device 22 is provided as a folded dipole having two (FIGS. 3 to 5) or three (FIGS. 6 to 9) folded antenna arms 24a, 24b, 24c, and is disposed between the ground plane 18 and the housing front plate 6.

[0043] As is shown in more detail in FIG. 3 to FIG. 5, for example, the antenna arms 24a, 24b are embodied volumetrically as two three-dimensional spherical spirals. The spherical spirals or antenna arms 24a, 24b extend and originate from the ground plane 18 along a height direction H, which points in the direction of an environment or outward perpendicularly to the ground plane 18 and in the worn state of the hearing aid 2. The antenna arms 24a, 24b each have one and one-half turns. The antenna arms 24a, 24b each have two antenna ends, which are embodied as antenna poles 26, 28. The antenna poles 26, 28 are used in this case to interconnect and contact the antenna arms 24a, 24b. The antenna pole 26 is in this case the antenna pole which is formed on an antenna end facing toward the ground plane 18, wherein the antenna pole 28 is accordingly the antenna pole which is disposed remotely from the ground plane 18.

[0044] As is apparent in particular on the basis of the top view of FIG. 5, the antenna arms 24a, 24b are disposed rotationally symmetrically with respect to a central axis, which is oriented along the height direction H. In particular, the antenna arm 24a can be mapped by using a 180° rotation on the antenna arm 24b and vice versa.

[0045] The antenna pole 26 of the antenna arm 24a is coupled in this case to a (signal) feed, wherein the antenna pole 26 of the antenna arm 24b is contacted with the ground plane 18. The antenna poles 28 of the antenna arms 24a, 24b are interconnected with one another.

[0046] In the exemplary embodiment of FIGS. 6 to 9, the antenna device 22 has three antenna arms 24a, 24b, 24c guided as spherical spirals, which are disposed offset in relation to one another rotationally symmetrically by 120°. The antenna pole 26 of the antenna arm 24a is coupled in this case to a (signal) feed, wherein the antenna poles 26 of the antenna arms 24b and 24c are short-circuited with one another through the ground plane 18. The antenna poles 28 of the antenna arms 24a, 24b, 24c are interconnected with one another.

[0047] In the embodiment shown in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9, the antenna device 22 has a hemispherical or dome-shaped hollow body 30 as a support structure for the antenna arms 24a, 24b, 24c. As is apparent in FIGS. 1 and 2, for example, the hollow body 30 is disposed above the ground plane 18, so that the printed circuit board 16 is overlapped in sections by the hollow body 30. The hollow body 30 is produced as an injection molded part from a plastic material suitable for laser direct structuring (LDS), wherein the antenna arms 24a, 24b, 24c are applied by using laser direct structuring to the hollow body 30, thus to an outer surface facing away from the ground plane 18. The mutual interconnection point or the antenna pole 28 is embodied in this case as a contact surface 32, which is disposed on the end face or in the area of a vertex of the hollow body 30.

[0048] As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the device housing 8 or the housing front plate 6 has a trough-like or bead-like bulge 34 or receptacle in this case, in which the hollow body 30 and the antenna arms 24a, 24b, 24c engage in sections.

[0049] In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, the antenna device 22 has three helical antenna arms 24a, 24b, 24c, which are guided on a lateral surface of a hollow-cylindrical or tubular hollow body 30. The antenna poles 28 are connected to one another in this case by using an end-face ring conductor 36. The antenna arms 24a, 24b, 24c each have two turns or pitches between the antenna poles 26, 28.

[0050] The claimed invention is not restricted to the above-described exemplary embodiments. Rather, other variants of the invention can be derived therefrom by a person skilled in the art in the scope of the disclosed claims, without leaving the subject matter of the claimed invention. In particular, all individual features described in conjunction with the various exemplary embodiments can furthermore be combined in another way in the scope of the disclosed claims, without leaving the subject matter of the claimed invention.

[0051] The following is a summary list of reference numerals and the corresponding structure used in the above description of the invention.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

[0052] 2 hearing aid [0053] 4 housing shell [0054] 6 housing front plate [0055] 8 device housing [0056] 10 signal processing device [0057] 12 battery [0058] 14 transceiver unit [0059] 16 printed circuit board [0060] 18 ground plane [0061] 20 antenna device [0062] 22 antenna device [0063] 24a, 24b, 24c antenna arm [0064] 26 antenna pole [0065] 28 antenna pole [0066] 30 hollow body [0067] 32 contact surface [0068] 34 bulge [0069] 36 ring conductor [0070] H height direction