Winding Design and Fabrication of a Miniature Axial-Flux Motor by Micro-Electroforming

In downsizing motor drives to fit in increasingly compact electronic products, the winding is the most awkward part to be scaled down from conventional motor design. The micro-electroforming process, however, can form products between micro and millimeter scale and is appropriate for manufacturing special winding conductor profiles. We describe a design for a miniature axial-flux motor based on a micro-electroformed winding. The design uses rhomboidal windings to reduce copper loss. We have verified the design by finite-element analysis, and we fabricated and inspected a prototype to demonstrate the effectiveness of the micro-electroforming procedure.