A Centrifugal Blood Pump Utilizing a Switched Reluctance Type Bearingless Disk Motor

Abstract

Implantable centrifugal blood pumps (CBP) utilizing magnetic bearings have shown excellent clinical results in durability, thrombus formation, and hemolysis. Magnetic bearing is also expected to be used in disposable CBPs. In order to spread the use of maglev disposable CBPs, the use of expensive NdFeB magnets in the disposable part should be avoided. A switched reluctance type bearingless disk motor (SR-BELDM) that doesn’t use NdFeB magnets in the disposable part was developed by our group. In this paper, we report on the design and fabrication of a prototype disposable CBP using the SR-BELDM and the basic pump performance.