2017 Volume 25 Issue 3 Pages 325-331
The magnetic bearing and self-bearing motor are promising technologies to achieve long device durability and good blood compatibility of the blood pumps. Active position control of the levitated impeller provides safer operation of the blood pumps in the whole driving range of the pumps. Several types of the magnetically suspended blood pumps have been developed at Ibaraki University. An implantable thin ventricular device for mild heart disease patients has been developed with a self-bearing motor suspended in the radial direction. An extracorporeal maglev blood pump has been developed for acute heart disease patients. It indicates powerful pump performance over a flow rate of 20 L/min and ability to regulate the load of the natural heart by synchronizing the pump speed with the heartbeat. A total artificial heart with rotary blood pumps driven by a single maglev motor has a small size to implant it enough in patients. The magnetic suspension mechanism and pump features of these maglev pumps are described in the paper.
