Design of a Novel Homopolar Bearingless Slice Motor with Reluctance Rotor

This work presents the first protoype of a novel class of bearingless slice motors. It differs from other examples of this motor topology mainly by the absence of permanent magnets in the rotor. A homopolar permanent magnetic bias air gap field is generated by stator magnets and enables the passive stabilization of three degrees of freedom. The presented drive concept features special operational behavior distinguishing it from other state of the art bearingless drives. To proof the proper functionality of the novel design, a prototype motor is optimized and designed. Various measurements are conducted to verify the finite element simulations results and to prove the functionality of the drive and its nonlinear control scheme.