Abstract
Hearing aids are medical-grade hearing healthcare devices that are built for superior sound quality and to encourage hearing aid wearers to live a more active lifestyle. With the introduction of on-ear sensor and rechargeable batteries, coupled with health and wellness features inspired an evolution in the benefit hearing aids could provide beyond aural rehabilitation. The ability to track physical activity came with the responsibility to ensure the hearing aids can withstand the heat, sweat, and varied environments they are subjected to. While most hearing aids today are designed to withstand wear and tear associated with being in constant contact with the wearer’s skin, in or around the ear, hearing aids continue to push the limits of the lifestyles the wearers maintain. The unique challenge with hearing aids is the use of glue is not allowed to seal the interfaces due to the increased sustainability and repairability emphasis. Further these devices have atmospheric acoustic openings to allow input sound to the mics. Since its introduction close to two decades ago, nanocoating technology has become a hearing aid industry standard that protects the device by acting as a first layer of defense from liquids, oils, and solids that may degrade the components of the hearing aids over time. The latest hearing aid design presented in this paper is engineered inside out, with multiple ingress protection barriers to ensure reliability of the product throughout its lifespan and to make it waterproof and weatherproof. A novel set of tests are designed and developed specifically to replicate the harshest conditions and use cases these wearable devices will come across in the real world application and the results show how the new design elements helped achieve successfully passing those tests.
