Hearing aid

Abstract

A hearing aid, in particular constructed as a classical hearing aid, includes a housing having a baseplate and a housing shell, a number of electrical and/or electronic units, and a transmitting and receiving unit for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves. The number of electrical and/or electronic units are fastened on the baseplate. The transmitting and receiving unit includes an electronic circuit for generating a transmission signal and an antenna unit coupled thereon. The antenna unit includes a free arm and the transmitting and receiving unit is configured to inductively feed the transmission signal of the electronic circuit into the antenna unit.

Claims

1. A hearing aid or classical hearing aid, comprising: a housing having a baseplate and a housing shell; a plurality of at least one of electrical or electronic units fastened on said baseplate; a transmitting and receiving unit for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves, said transmitting and receiving unit including an electronic circuit for generating a transmission signal and an antenna unit coupled on said electronic circuit; said transmitting and receiving unit including a coupling element connected to said electronic circuit, said coupling element including two conductor loops disposed adjacent to one another, said coupling element including a supply line shared by said two conductor loops, said two conductor loops adjoining said supply line; said antenna unit including a free arm, and said antenna unit including a feed arm positioned parallel to said supply line of said coupling element; and said transmitting and receiving unit configured to inductively feed the transmission signal of said electronic circuit into said antenna unit.

2. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said conductor loop includes an auxiliary component.

3. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said two conductor loops each include a respective auxiliary component.

4. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said shared supply line includes an auxiliary component.

5. The hearing aid according to claim 1, which further comprises a waveguide or a coaxial cable connecting said coupling element to said electronic circuit.

6. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said antenna unit includes a feed arm.

7. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said antenna unit includes a feed arm and said two conductor loops are disposed symmetrically relative to said feed arm.

8. The hearing aid according to claim 6, wherein said feed arm forms or at least partially forms an S-shaped or Z-shaped conductor structure.

9. The hearing aid according to claim 6, wherein said feed arm includes an auxiliary component.

10. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said electrically conductive auxiliary element shields said free arm against said plurality of at least one of electrical or electronic units.

11. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said auxiliary element includes a conductor loop.

12. The hearing aid according to claim 11, wherein said plurality of at least one of electrical or electronic units are positioned inside said conductor loop of said auxiliary element.

13. The hearing aid according to claim 1, which further comprises a short-circuit arm connecting said free arm to said auxiliary element.

14. The hearing aid according to claim 13, wherein said short-circuit arm includes an auxiliary component.

15. A hearing aid or classical hearing aid, comprising: a housing having a baseplate and a housing shell; a plurality of at least one of electrical or electronic units fastened on said baseplate; a transmitting and receiving unit for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves, said transmitting and receiving unit including an electronic circuit for generating a transmission signal and an antenna unit coupled on said electronic circuit; said antenna unit including a free arm, said antenna unit including an electrically conductive auxiliary element, said antenna unit including a feed arm, and said free arm being connected through said feed arm to said auxiliary element; and said transmitting and receiving unit configured to inductively feed the transmission signal of said electronic circuit into said antenna unit.

16. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said auxiliary element includes an auxiliary component.

17. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said auxiliary element includes a widened free end.

18. The hearing aid according to claim 1, which further comprises an auxiliary component connecting said free arm to said auxiliary element.

19. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said free arm includes a widened free end.

20. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said free arm includes an auxiliary component.

21. The hearing aid according to claim 1, which further comprises an additional arm branching off from said free arm.

22. The hearing aid according to claim 21, wherein said free arm has ends, and said additional arm is spaced apart from said ends of said free arm.

23. The hearing aid according to claim 22, wherein said additional arm includes a widened free end.

24. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said antenna unit includes a plurality of conductor tracks applied to a substrate or to said baseplate, and said conductor tracks at least partially form said free arm.

25. The hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein said coupling element includes a plurality of conductor tracks applied to a substrate or to said baseplate, said conductor tracks forming said conductor loop or two conductor loops.

26. A hearing aid or classical hearing aid, comprising: a housing having a baseplate and a housing shell; a plurality of at least one of electrical or electronic units fastened on said baseplate; a transmitting and receiving unit for transmitting and receiving electromagnetic waves, said transmitting and receiving unit including an electronic circuit for generating a transmission signal and an antenna unit coupled on said electronic circuit, said transmitting and receiving unit including a coupling element connected to said electronic circuit, said coupling element including a conductor loop; said antenna unit including a free arm; and said transmitting and receiving unit configured to inductively feed the transmission signal of said electronic circuit into said antenna unit; said transmitting and receiving unit including a plurality of conductor tracks applied to a substrate having mutually opposite first and second sides; said conductor tracks including a first portion forming at least a part of said antenna unit and a second portion forming at least a part of said coupling element; and said first portion being applied to said first side of said substrate and said second portion being applied to said opposite second side of said substrate.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

(1) FIG. 1 is a simplified, diagrammatic and partially transparent plan view of a hearing aid having an antenna unit and having a coupling element on a shared substrate;

(2) FIG. 2 is a perspective view in a first embodiment of a first side of the substrate having the antenna unit applied thereon;

(3) FIG. 3 is a perspective view in a first embodiment of a second side of the substrate having the coupling element applied thereon;

(4) FIG. 4 is a fragmentary, perspective view of the antenna unit in the first embodiment and the coupling element in the first embodiment in their relative configuration to one another;

(5) FIG. 5 is a simplified perspective view of a part of the hearing aid having a baseplate, one electrical and two electronic units, and the substrate;

(6) FIG. 6 is a perspective view in a second embodiment of the second side of the substrate having the coupling element applied thereon;

(7) FIG. 7 is a perspective view in a third embodiment of the second side of the substrate having the coupling element applied thereon;

(8) FIG. 8 is a perspective view in a second embodiment of the first side of the substrate having the antenna unit applied thereon;

(9) FIG. 9 is a perspective view in a third embodiment of the first side of the substrate having the antenna unit applied thereon;

(10) FIG. 10 is a perspective view in a fourth embodiment of the first side of the substrate having the antenna unit applied thereon;

(11) FIG. 11 is a perspective view in a fifth embodiment of the first side of the substrate having the antenna unit applied thereon;

(12) FIG. 12 is a perspective view in a sixth embodiment of the first side of the substrate having the antenna unit applied thereon;

(13) FIG. 13 is a perspective view in a seventh embodiment of the first side of the substrate having the antenna unit applied thereon;

(14) FIG. 14 is a perspective view in an eighth embodiment of the first side of the substrate having the antenna unit applied thereon; and

(15) FIG. 15 is a perspective view in a ninth embodiment of the first side of the substrate having the antenna unit applied thereon.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

(16) Referring now in detail to the figures of the drawings, in which parts corresponding to one another are each provided with the same reference signs, and first, particularly, to FIG. 1 thereof, there is seen a simplified and partially transparent illustration of a hearing aid 2 which is described below as an example and includes a housing 4 having a baseplate 6 and a housing shell 8. In this case, the housing 4 is constructed in such a way that the baseplate 6 is reversibly detachably connected to the housing shell 8 when the housing 4 is formed and the baseplate 6 may be detached from the housing shell 8 by actuating a pushbutton (not shown) on the baseplate 6.

(17) Furthermore, in the exemplary embodiment, a number of electrical and/or electronic units, referred to below as E-units 10 for short, are fastened on the baseplate 6. In the exemplary embodiment, a battery 12 and a data processing unit 14 each form one of these E-units 10. A further E-unit 10, i.e., a further additional one of the number of E-units 10, is formed by an electronic circuit 16 of a transmitting and receiving unit 18.

(18) In this case, the transmitting and receiving unit 18 is configured to transmit and receive electromagnetic waves in operation of the hearing aid 2, in particular for communication with a second hearing aid (not shown). The electronic circuit 16 and an antenna unit 20, which is shown in a first embodiment in FIG. 2, are part of the transmitting and receiving unit 18 in this case.

(19) This antenna unit 20 is preferably configured like a so-called PIF antenna and typically includes an electrically conductive auxiliary element 22, for which a ground potential or reference potential is preferably predetermined in operation of the hearing aid 2. In the exemplary embodiment according to FIG. 2, the auxiliary element 22 is formed by a conductor loop, which has a ring shape in rough approximation. In this case, the auxiliary element 22 encloses or surrounds the above-mentioned E-units 10 and in this way shields a free arm 24 of the antenna unit 20 from these E-units 10.

(20) The auxiliary element 22 and the free arm 24 are in one plane in this case and are each formed as conductor tracks, for example made of copper. Furthermore, these conductor tracks are applied, for example printed, on a first side of a substrate 26. This first side is shown in FIG. 2. In the exemplary embodiment, a film forms the substrate 26 and, to form the hearing aid 2, this film, together with the already applied conductor tracks, is preferably quasi-pulled over the E-units 10, applied to the baseplate 6 of the housing 4, and adhesively bonded to the baseplate 6. This configuration is indicated diagrammatically in FIG. 5. The E-units 10 penetrate a central passage in the substrate 26 in this case.

(21) In the exemplary embodiment according to FIG. 2, the above-mentioned free arm 24 at least partially encloses the auxiliary element 22 and is connected at one end through a short-circuit arm 28 to the auxiliary element 22. Moreover, in the exemplary embodiment according to FIG. 2, a feed arm 30, through which the antenna unit 20 is also connected to the auxiliary element 22, branches off from the free arm 24 spaced apart from the short-circuit arm 28.

(22) In order to feed a signal to be transmitted into the antenna unit 20 or to read out a received signal, the transmitting and receiving unit 18 furthermore includes a coupling element 32. The coupling element 32 is also formed by conductor tracks in the exemplary embodiment and these conductor tracks are applied in this embodiment variant on the same substrate 26 as the antenna unit 20, but on the second side of the substrate 26 opposite to the first side. This second side is shown in a first embodiment in FIG. 3.

(23) In the exemplary embodiment according to FIG. 3, the coupling element 32 now forms two conductor loops 34 disposed adjacent to one another. The two conductor loops 34, as can be seen from FIG. 3, are connected to one another in this case through a shared supply line 36, to which the two conductor loops 34 are attached. The coupling element 32 is furthermore disposed in the exemplary embodiment in relation to the antenna unit 20 in such a way that the supply line 36 is disposed in good approximation in parallel to the feed arm 30 and the conductor loops 34 are symmetrical to the feed arm 30. This relative configuration is shown in FIG. 4, wherein in this configuration only the conductor tracks are shown and the substrate 26 is hidden.

(24) The coupling element 32 is connected to the electronic circuit 16 of the transmitting and receiving unit 18 through a connecting element 38. This connecting element 38 is constructed in the exemplary embodiment as a coplanar waveguide, which includes three conductor strips 40. The three conductor strips 40 are disposed in parallel to one another and coplanar in this case and the outer two outer conductor strips 40 are each connected to one of the conductor loops 34. The middle conductor strip 40 is additionally connected to the supply line 36 and a signal is fed in or read out therethrough in operation of the transmitting and receiving unit 18 as needed.

(25) The conductor strips 40 are preferably supplemented by a conductor surface 42, which is applied in particular to the first side of the substrate 30 and which is subjected in operation of the transmitting and receiving unit 18, like the two outer conductor strips 40, to a ground potential or reference potential. This ground potential or reference potential is provided in this case by the electronic circuit 16 of the transmitting and receiving unit 18 and is supplied through a galvanic connection.

(26) As already mentioned above, the auxiliary element 22 is preferably also subjected to a ground potential or reference potential, but in the exemplary embodiment this is provided through a galvanic connection to the battery 12. The auxiliary element 22 and the coupling element 32 are galvanically separated from one another.

(27) A second embodiment of the coupling element 32 is shown in FIG. 6. This embodiment differs from the embodiment according to FIG. 3 above all in that an auxiliary component 44 is integrated in the shared supply line 36 and also in each of the two conductor loops 34. The structure is preferably made symmetrical and the three auxiliary components 44 are in particular similar auxiliary components 44.

(28) Independently thereof, an auxiliary component 44 in the meaning of this application is typically an electrical component having an ohmic resistance, having a capacitance, and/or having an inductance, i.e., for example a capacitor, a coil, a resistor, or simply a conductor interruption, i.e., a quasi-gap.

(29) A third embodiment of the coupling element 32 is shown in FIG. 7. The coupling element 32 only includes one conductor loop 46 in this case instead of the above-described two conductor loops 34.

(30) Further embodiment variants of the antenna unit 20 are shown in FIG. 8 to FIG. 15. A second embodiment variant according to FIG. 8 differs in this case from the embodiment according to FIG. 2 due to the configuration of the free arm 24, on one hand, and the configuration of the auxiliary element 22, on the other hand. The auxiliary element 22 according to FIG. 8 thus does not have a ring shape or at least not a closed ring shape, rather the auxiliary element 22 is formed by a curved conductor having a free end. The curved conductor spans an arc range or angle range of greater than 180° and therefore in turn forms a conductor loop or conductor hoop. The free end of the auxiliary element 22 and the free end of the free arm 24 are moreover embodied as widened ends or widened free ends, the corresponding free ends thus each have a widening 48.

(31) The term “widened” is to be understood in particular to mean that the corresponding free end has a transverse extension which corresponds to at least 1.2 times, preferably at least 1.5 times, and more preferably at least 2 times the transverse extension of the corresponding conductor element away from the free end.

(32) A third embodiment variant according to FIG. 9 differs from the embodiment according to FIG. 8 in that the short-circuit arm 28 is not provided. The free arm 24 and the auxiliary element 22 are as a result connected to one another solely through the feed arm 30. In this case, the feed arm 30, together with the conductor structure of free arm 24 and auxiliary element 22 adjoining thereon, forms a Z-shaped conductor structure or a Z-shaped course of the conductor tracks forming the antenna unit 20.

(33) A fourth variant is illustrated in FIG. 10. This variant differs from the embodiment according to FIG. 2 by way of an auxiliary component 50 of the above-mentioned type, which connects the free arm 24 to the auxiliary element 22. Moreover, in the antenna unit 20 according to FIG. 10, an additional arm 52 branches off from the free arm 24, and does so spaced apart from the two ends of the free arm 24. This additional arm 52 preferably points away from the auxiliary element 22 and moreover preferably has a terminal widening 48 of the abovementioned type.

(34) The further embodiment variants of the antenna unit 20 according to FIG. 11 to FIG. 14 differ from the embodiment according to FIG. 10 by way of the position and possibly the embodiment of the auxiliary components 54 to 60, wherein each auxiliary component 54 to 60 is embodied as an auxiliary component of the abovementioned type. The auxiliary components 54 to 60 are thus embodied in particular as electrical components of the above-mentioned type, but depending on the application possibly as different electrical components.

(35) The embodiment variant of the antenna unit 20 according to FIG. 15 represents a modification or refinement of the antenna unit 20 according to FIG. 9. In the embodiment according to FIG. 15, the free arm 24 is formed as an expanded free arm 24 and includes a conductor expansion 62 made of an electrically conductive material, by which, for example, a branch or fork is formed. Through the use of the conductor expansion 62, the free arm 24 is preferably capacitively charged proceeding from the configuration of the free arm 24 according to FIG. 9 and in this way a resonance condition for the antenna unit 20 is typically predetermined.

(36) In this exemplary embodiment, in contrast to the auxiliary element 22, the feed arm 30, and the remainder of the free arm 24, the conductor expansion 62 is not formed by conductor tracks and is also not in the above-mentioned plane, which is predetermined by a surface of the substrate 26. Instead, the conductor expansion 62 is more or less guided or tilted out of this plane. The conductor expansion 62 is formed in the exemplary embodiment, inter alia, by a connecting arm, which protrudes from the substrate 26 and is connected to a conductor track end or a widened conductor track end of a conductor track on the substrate. The corresponding conductor track also forms the free arm 24 in the embodiment of the antenna unit 20 according to FIG. 15. It corresponds with respect to the configuration to the conductor track which forms the free arm 24 alone in the embodiment of the antenna unit 20 according to FIG. 9.

(37) A cross conductor, which forms a T-shape together with the connecting arm, adjoins the connecting arm in the exemplary embodiment according to FIG. 15. A U-shaped conductor element in turn adjoins each of the two ends of the cross conductor in the exemplary embodiment, wherein the opening of the U shape preferably faces toward the substrate 26.

(38) According to a further embodiment variant (not shown), an above-described conductor expansion 62 is not part of the free arm 24 but part of the above-described additional arm 52 or adjoins the above-described additional arm 52.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

(39) 2 hearing aid 4 housing 6 baseplate (faceplate) 8 housing shell 10 E-unit 12 battery 14 data processing unit 16 electronic circuit 18 transmitting and receiving unit 20 antenna unit 22 auxiliary element 24 free arm 26 substrate 28 short-circuit arm 30 feed arm 32 coupling element 34 conductor loop 36 supply line 38 connecting element 40 conductor strip 42 conductor surface 44 auxiliary component 46 conductor loop 48 widening 50 auxiliary component 52 additional arm 54 auxiliary component 56 auxiliary component 58 auxiliary component 60 auxiliary component 62 conductor expansion