Design of a Single-Sided, Coreless, Flat-Type Linear Voice Coil Motor

A voice coil motor is a type of permanent magnet linear motor, which is based on the Ampere force theorem. It has the following advantages: a simple structure, a small size, no cogging force, and a fast response time. In this study, a voice coil motor was designed to provide x-directional thrust in the magnetically levitated cable table of a lithography machine. The voice coil motor designed in this study was based on the Halbach permanent magnet array, and adopted a single-sided, coreless, flat-type structure. First, the magnetic field distribution was analyzed based on the magnetic charge method to obtain an expression for the magnetic field and the thrust. The results of this analysis agreed very well with the finite element simulation results. Next, the main parameters of the motor, including the number of turns made by the coil, the size of the wire, and the size of the permanent magnets, were selected and optimized to increase the force density. Finally, two double-layer, serpentine waterway water-cooling plate configurations were designed for this voice coil motor. The validity of this water-cooling structure was verified for two different winding equivalent models. This provided feasibility to further upgrade the windings’ current density.