Concepts and designs of life support systems

Beyond other problems total artificial hearts (TAHs), available on today´s market, contain many wear-prone components. Thus a desired lifespan of five years can not be achieved. Durability and operation with low wear are one basic requirement, as failure is an immediate threat to patient´s life. These attributes can be found in linear motors. In this paper a list of requirements for TAHs is presented. The potential of a linear motor as TAH´s drive is shown by a first prototype. Based on this prototype, two new motor concepts are developed. These two concepts are compared with conventional rotary TAH systems, available on today´s market.