Design of Cost-Effective and Modular Analog Hearing Aides Using Nullors for Response Matching

A new approach is presented for the design of analog hearing aids. The design consists of two parts: an amplifier and a control unit. The design is done so that no adjustment or wave shaping part is related to the amplifier unit. This makes the design very simple and easily adjustable. The control unit, however, consists of all passive components and it is built in a modular structure. This is the unit that carries the entire curvefitting and tuning operations needed for a smooth hearing. The control unit is basically built to generate a frequency profile that is close enough to a given audiogram of a hearing-impaired patient. The profile so generated is then inverted with the help of a Fixator-Norator Pair (FNP), and the amplifier unit amplifies the response. The net result, therefore, is the delivery of a flat comprehension hearing for the patient. For more flexibility and adjustments, maximum modularity of the control unit is recommended. The main emphasis of this design is to make it simple, tunable, and cost-effective by maximizing the modularity of the control unit.