With its “Savia” and “microSavia” instruments, hearing aid manufacturer Phonak has designed two masterpieces. The multi-channel, adaptive, multi-microphone system improves speech intelligibility and minimises interference. To miniaturise this system, the Swiss company relies on Vectra LCP from Ticona. This innovative material is used to produce several components for the instrument, which won the coveted “Medical Design Excellence Award” in the USA.

“Our ears are very sensitive organs, which react with pain to unpleasant noises,” according to Dr Stefan Launer, Research and Development Director at Phonak AG. “Hearing aid wearers soon feel it if irritatingly loud sound levels are picked up in the ambient noise. The instrument analyses and classifies all hearing situations and adapts automatically to the environment,” explains Dr Launer. “This adaptive hearing vastly improves speech intelligibility for people with moderate to severe hearing loss.”

The technological core of this first hearing aid system with so-called digital bionics is a signal processor (chip) that is supplied with information from a radio receiver. Both parts of the system are unique – because of their high efficiency and minute dimensions.

Vectra liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) from Ticona has made a vital contribution to the success of the Phonak hearing aid. “LCP enables us to produce a modular, stable hearing aid mechanism,” according to Josef Müller, Director of Hearing Instrument Mechanics at Phonak AG. “In particular, the material offers advantages in the production of thin structures and simplifies integration of conductive electronic components.”

News of this reached ears in completely different circles. Last July, hearing aid manufacturer Phonak was delighted to receive the Gold Medical Design Excellence Award (MDEA) 2005 in the USA. And when the award was presented, it seems hardly likely that either hearing aid wearers or the manufacturer perceived the applause as unwanted background noise…