With almost unlimited possible multi-coil configurations, it’s important to understand how standard multi-coil configurations interact when selecting custom coil components. While the electromagnetic properties of simpler multi-coil devices are easy to predict and control, managing more complex configurations requires a thorough understanding of how fields of basic multi-coil configurations interact.
Types of Multi-coil Configurations
Electrical engineers use various multi-coil designs to model the electromagnetic field of each configuration and determine its properties. These considerations are useful to achieve specific electromagnetic effects in various devices, and the qualities of any given multi-coil greatly affect its potential applications. The following are the most common standard multi-coil configurations, along with their associated electromagnetic properties and general applications.
- Dipole Magnet: Dipole magnets are capable of producing homogeneous magnetic fields across large distances. They stimulate particle motion in a circular plane perpendicular to the electromagnetic field, which is ideal for particle accelerators. By applying multiple dipoles along the same plane (collinear to the particle trajectory), it’s possible to increasingly bend the beam’s helical direction radially.
- Helmholtz Coil Configuration: A Helmholtz coil configuration is an almost completely uniform type of dipole magnet, consisting of two coils generating equal currents along the same axis. Because they have minimal variability, Helmholtz coils are useful for applications such as calibrating scientific instruments and canceling out the Earth’s magnetic field.
- Quadrupole Magnet: Because individual quadrupoles cannot focus along both vertical and horizontal axes at the same time, each quadrupole focuses along one plane, and defocuses along a plane perpendicular to it. There are actually two types of quadrupoles:
1. F quadrupoles, which focus horizontally
2. D quadrupoles, which focus verticallyPlacing both types of quadrupoles together directly cancels out their electromagnetic fields; however, placing them at a distance leaves certain portions of each quadrupole’s field intact, resulting in unique interference patterns. It’s then possible to control both the vertical and horizontal axes within an electromagnetic lattice produced by a quadrupole pair. By carefully spacing F and D quadrupoles, the direction and range of the magnetic beam’s focus is subject to control.
These properties make a carefully configured quadrupole pair ideal for controlling beam focus and particle generation. Depending on the type of lattice built by the interference pattern, it’s possible to send particle beams across large distances, form a complete ring, and achieve other specific effects.
Applications of Multi-coil Configurations
Electromagnetic devices often require an array of multi-coil configurations to achieve the desired effect. By combining different coils, it’s possible to control an electromagnetic field with precision control. The complexities of multi-coil systems rise with the use of less standard multi-coil configurations.
For custom, specialty coil designs, it’s critical to perform comprehensive modeling of any multi-coil configuration’s electromagnetic properties. Doing so makes numerous applications possible in the safest and most effective way while reducing unwanted electromagnetic interference.
Electromagnetic Field Effects
By altering the size, power, orientation, and placement of coils in relation to each other, basic coil configurations give way to more complex electromagnetic fields. Using different multi-coil configurations is fundamental to custom coil design, electronics manufacturing, and any application where electromagnetic residue might be problematic (such as motor shafts).
To control electromagnetic fields, it’s common to begin by designing and modifying more basic multi-coil configurations and determining their effect on the resulting electromagnetic lattice, beam direction(s), and other properties. In this way, technicians can design electromagnet coil products according to the specific needs of electronics manufacturers in numerous industries.
Contact Custom Coils for your Multi-coil Configuration Needs!
While potentially very complex, the foundations of multi-coil device configurations are relatively simple. By studying the effect of each coil on the electromagnetic field, Custom Coils’ experienced engineers achieve maximum control of these properties in our custom multi-coil devices.
If you have any need for specialty multi-coil products, request a quote from our highly knowledgeable project engineers. We can help you determine which multi-coil configuration is right for your design, including fully custom solutions.
