Date: 28/11/2008

Phonak and NXP jointly developed single IC hearing aid system

NXP has announced a single chip ultra low power radio for use in hearing systems developed in collaboration with Phonak. The new ultra low power radio is currently being integrated into Phonak's portfolio of CORE-based hearing systems and wireless accessories.
"Medical electronics is one of the fastest growing areas of semiconductor development and becoming increasingly important for NXP", said Rene Penning de Vries, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of NXP Semiconductors. "At NXP we value customer engagement and working with the leading players in their field to use technology innovation to help develop new insightful and engaging technology. Our ultra low power solutions, based on magnetic induction radio technology and CoolFlux DSP, were the cornerstones for this breakthrough project."
Antoine Delaruelle, senior director and manager of Ultra Low Power Solutions, NXP Semiconductors said "Our chip does support a high data rate of up to 298 kbps and bi-directional communication, enabling novel applications such as stereo audio streaming and binaural processing. Within this particular project, miniaturization was a key requirement and we worked closely with Phonak's engineers to develop a highly integrated solution, utilising embedded non-volatile memory and supporting direct operation from a single battery."
NXP Semiconductors is currently expanding its portfolio of ultra low power IC solutions and working with customers in the high demand areas such as Healthcare to help create unique devices for the market.