Optimal Configuration for Electromagnets and Coils in Magnetic Actuators

Recently, the development of medical instrumentation has advanced less invasive therapeutic operations. Micro device navigation through the human body, especially blood vessels, is an important part of minimally invasive techniques. Remote actuation is critical in order to manipulate the micro object inside the body. To achieve remote control within the cardiovascular system, magnetic propulsion offers an advantage over conventional actuation methods eliminating carry-on power supplies. A general magnetic propulsion system is composed of several electromagnets assembled with different orientations and positions. For remote actuation, the magnetic field produced plays an important role in initiating appropriate induction on micro devices. The effect of the electromagnets' arrangement is studied in this paper. Moreover, an optimization criterion is introduced here by which the performance of two effective but different structures is compared. Finally, the optimum structure, which improves actuator efficiency in micro scale applications, is discussed.