Basilar membrane inspired self-powered sensors for biomedical applications

Living creatures have evolved over the ages through the process of natural- selection to adapt to their surrounding environment. Taking inspiration from living creatures to solve engineering problems is often the best design approach as it saves lot of time in design optimization. This project aims to develop energy efficient and self-powered sensors that mimic the functionality of the cochlea in the inner ear. In vertebrates including human beings, the inner ear is responsible for sound detection and balance. Cochlea of the inner ear performs the role of sensing and transmitting sound signals to the brain as electric impulses. This project targets to develop artificial versions of micro/ nano electro mechanical systems (MEMS / NEMS) sensors similar to the the basilar membrane within the cochlea. The basilar membrane within the cochlea is a biological structure which is found within the cochlea of the inner ear of living creatures. It is a stiff structure which separates two liquid-filled tubes that run along the coil of the cochlea, the scala media and the scala tympani. Basilar membrane has a pseudo-resonant structure where the mechanical properties like stiffness, mass, damping etc. vary along its length. The proposed research aims to develop basilar membrane inspired self-powered sensors using Graphene -polymer composite as the sensing element. Such devices would not only find applications in artificial cochlear-implants but can also be used for other applications where frequency dependent signal generation might be necessary. With successful design and development of the proposed device, we can aim to have a class of completely powerless cochlear implants which is unheard of before.

Supervisors

Prof. dr. Yutao Pei, Dr. Ajay Kottapalli

PhD student

Debarun Sengupta