A High Thrust Density Voice Coil Actuator With a New Structure of Double Magnetic Circuits for CubeSat Deployers.

The deployer uses a voice coil actuator (VCA) to control precisely the separation velocity of CubeSats with different masses. This article proposes a novel VCA with a new structure of double magnetic circuits featuring high thrust density. Unlike the conventional design, the new design achieves high thrust density by using a new structure of double magnetic circuits to concentrate the magnetic flux in the airgap and alleviate the magnetic saturation in the yoke. An improved equivalent magnetic circuit is developed to reveal the performance improvement of the novel VCA. The electromagnetic characteristics of the new VCA are investigated and compared with the conventional counterparts by finite element analysis and experimental tests. One VCA deployer prototype has been fabricated and testedexperimentally to validate the thrust density and separation characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]