Case Study: GN Hearing achieves faster, lower-cost next-generation hearing-aid ASIC development with MathWorks Simulink

GN Hearing Accelerates Development of Next-Generation Hearing Aid ASICs

GN Hearing, a maker of next-generation hearing aids using magnetic induction radios, faced a challenge verifying real-world performance of its ASIC designs against independent asynchronous clocks, jitter, skew, and channel noise before tape-out. Previously the team only discovered jitter problems after receiving chips, which forced costly prototypes and long delays; to address this they turned to MathWorks tools including Simulink, MATLAB, Communications Toolbox, and Mixed-Signal Blockset to model and analyze the system-level behavior and properly size the receiver PLL.

Using MathWorks’ Simulink and toolboxes, GN Hearing built a mixed continuous-/discrete-time system model, added jitter with Sampling Clock Source and Variable Pulse Delay blocks, ran BER tests while varying jitter/skew/noise, and used eye and constellation diagrams plus automated MATLAB test scripts to validate designs and deliver PLL parameters to the analog team. MathWorks-enabled simulation cut design time by three months or more, minimized costly ASIC prototypes (saving hundreds of thousands of dollars and months of delays), and allowed an optimal PLL that reduced power consumption and extended battery life.

GN Hearing

Henrik Holm Johansen

GN Hearing