Application of Diamagnetic Levitation to Mechatronic Systems

Diamagnetic levitation is the only passive levitation technique working at room temperature. Using planar arrangements of permanent magnets, it is indeed possible to levitate diamagnetic materials at room temperature. Such a principle is particularly interesting to use for the design of mechatronic systems, especially in applications where friction between mechanical parts should be avoided such as, for instance, high precision inertial sensors or actuators for clean-room applications. In this article the authors show with some examples extracted from their research on the subject, that diamagnetic levitation is a promising technique that can be of great interest for the design of small scale mechatronic systems.