Middle Ear Prosthesis- The "Gripper"

Abstract

Dr. Karl Grosh and his team envision a completely implantable hearing aid that will transform hearing loss correction. Our specific problem in that long term goal is to design and prototype a mechanism to secure an accelerometer to the middle ear bones. The product must pass performance, compatibility and practicality standards such as being small, lightweight, adjustable, and biocompatible. We plan to create our shape memory alloy grabber and utilize both 3D printed models and cadaver middle ear bones to validate our prototype. The critical anticipated challenges are shape metal alloy processing/machining as well as the difficulty printing such a small 3D printed part. Our most successful prototype at the end of the semester was at a 5:1 scale.