Cochlear implant uses LEDs to tackle hearing loss

Cochlear implants are an established treatment, using a microphone to detect sound and converting that sound into electrical impulses, split into several channels for different frequency ranges. But these devices can offer poor quality sound encoding, partly due to the large lateral spread of electrical current from each electrode, stimulating too many auditory neurons at the same time. A project at the University of Göttingen has now developed a light-based alternative device, reported in Science Translational Medicine. The eventual design featured a linear array of 10 LED chips, each 270 by 220 microns and emitting at 457 nanometers, integrated onto microfabricated 15-micron-thick polyimide-based carriers with interconnecting lines to address individual LEDs.