1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to hearing aids, and specifically to Behind The Ear, In The Ear, In The Canal, or Completely In The Canal hearing aids which are being shielded to be resistant to electromagnetic interference produced by cellular telephones and other devices in the 800 MHz to 100 GHz frequency range.
2. Description of Related Art
The invention consists of the following: hearing aids which can be worn behind the ear, in the ear, or in the ear canal. These devices are widely known in the hearing aid industry as follows: Behind The Ear (BTE), In The Ear or All In The Ear (ITE), In The Canal (ITC), and Completely In The Canal (CIC).
This invention intends to shield these types of hearing aids from electromagnetic interference caused by cellular telephones in the 800 MHz-100 GHz frequency range by using an electrically conductive foil to shield the circuitry components. Furthermore, an electrically conductive gasket, paint or plastic could also be used to shield the circuitry components.
Also, a filtering circuit composed of inductors and capacitors is used to shield the circuitry components wherein ferrite beads or ferrite toroids are used as the inductors.
Also, a case consisting of a faceplate and a shell, the shell being made to fit in the ear, partially in the ear canal, or completely in the ear canal, and made wholly or partially of an electrically conductive material, the outside of which consists of a material such as an acrylic that produces no adverse affects when worn in the ear by most people.
The following devices are related to, but do not comprise any part of this invention: hearing aids worn elsewhere on the body other than in or behind the ear, known as “Body Aids”, aids which intentionally use an electric field antenna or a plane wave antenna, hearing aids which couple sound waves through the bones of the head, known as “Bone Conduction” hearing aids, and also hearing aids which are built into eyeglass frames, and any devices which require surgery to install, such as Cochlear Implants.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds