Optimal design of high-precision maglev system using simulation-based DOE and FEM

An optimal design for improving performance of high-precision maglev (magnetic levitation) systems in semiconductor manufacturing is presented. Motor performance for various design schemes such as thickness and magnetising patterns of the permanent magnets, pole pitch, length of airgap, turns number of windings, and thickness of the air core has been investigated in detail by using the FEM (finite-element method). The simulation-based DOE (design of experiments) method is also applied to reduce the large amount of analysis according to each design variable and consider the effect among variables. The optimal design in all aspects is proposed by an optimisation algorithm using a regression equation derived from the simulationbased DOE and the performance is verified by FEM.