A Flexure Mode Piezoelectric Transducer for Driving the Ossicular Chain of Research Animals

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Abstract
This paper describes the development rationale and some of the operating characteristics of a piezoelectric transducer for ossicular chain activation. By utilizing a very thin, bimorph‐type, flexure‐mode piezoelectric transducer in a cantilevered configuration, relatively large displacements can be generated by very low activating voltages, typically less than 1 V to produce displacements corresponding to normal communication levels. Measurements of transducer activating voltage necessary to produce various levels of round‐window cochlear microphonic (CM) are compared with tympanic‐membrane sound‐pressure levels necessary to produce equal round‐window CM in response to pure‐tone waveforms. Umbo displacements produced by the transducer are compared with umbo displacements produced by pure‐tone sound fields down to displacement levels less than 10 Å, through the medium of constant round‐window CM in guinea pigs. Other investigations have concerned the ability of the transducer to deliver complex signals to the ossicular chain.

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