How RF wireless charging is driving technological advancements in the hearing aid category

Neeraj Sahejpal, senior vice president of product marketing and strategy at Energous Corporation, shares his perspective on why medical device manufacturers are adopting RF wireless charging to improve convenience of products for hearing impaired patients.

A good hearing aid is truly life-changing for the millions of people who rely on them on a daily basis. For those struggling with hearing loss, it can be the path towards staying independent and engaged in an active lifestyle. According to recent data from the World Health Organisation, 466 million people around the world have disabling hearing loss and that number is only expected to double in the next 30 years.

Unfortunately, there are downsides to many of the hearing aid solutions that are on the market today simply because the tiny batteries within them need to be frequently replaced, as often as every three days. Small button batteries can be frustrating for anyone to deal with, but for senior patients, they carry extra challenges.

In addition to the hassle that is frequent battery replacement, there are also cost and danger concerns. Depending on the size of the battery, the weekly cost of buying replacements can add up for patients – not to mention some of the most advanced hearing aids have the smallest, most expensive batteries. The inconvenience of buying new batteries so frequently also makes it easy for hearing aid patients to forget to buy more and run out, so they aren’t even able to use their device.

Additionally, each year, nearly 2,000 people in the U.S. swallow button batteries. It’s easy for button batteries to be dropped on the floor where they can’t be easily seen, found or retrieved, but can be accidentally swallowed by children or even pets. In fact, data shows that 600+ button batteries were swallowed by children under the age of five which, at best, requires a trip to the emergency room before life-threatening injuries result.

The battery replacement problem is clear. As we look ahead, technology has a major role to play in solving for this and it is responsible for driving innovation in this category – notably, RF-based wireless charging technologies because they alleviate all of these challenges for patients and significantly improve the value of these hearing aid solutions for manufacturers.

RF-based wireless charging in particular offers many unique advantages over older coiled-based systems for both hearing aid manufacturers and patients. It has special receiver that is small enough for in-the-ear hearing aids and that receiver can be embedded into devices with various form factors, including those that are round in shape. Some of the other advantages of using RF over older coil-based solutions include its extremely small footprint, interoperability across devices due to the common receiver, foreign object detection, improved thermal conditions, and its ability to make devices waterproof and easier to sanitize.

For hearing aid manufacturers, RF wireless charging can also be easy to implement into products. Technology companies like Energous offer hearing aid-specific developer kits and reference designs that make it easy for manufacturers to incorporate RF-based wireless charging into products and build next generation, wirelessly charged hearing aids.

Additionally, wireless charging also delivers major benefits to patients. Not only can they charge their device more effortlessly – on a nightstand, kitchen table or perhaps even in the car for example – but they also do not have to worry about battery replacement and fidgeting with the device to figure out how to remove the battery. It may sound unrealistic, but technologies like this exist and they can significantly improve the functionality of hearing aids we know today.

Hearing aids may be the first to adopt RF wireless charging, but in the future, we anticipate manufacturers in the medical industry will look to RF-based wireless charging for other device categories due to the many advantages we covered in this article. Imagine a world where all medical devices – from asset tracking solutions, to medical sensors, convalescent patent personal alarms, heart rate monitors, medical instruments and beyond – can all be powered wirelessly and work together in one compatible ecosystem because of their common RF-based receiver technology. This is where we are headed.