Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ension Inc.

Minkyun Noh

David L Trumper

Mark J Gartner

Brij Mohan Bhushan

Daniel Rodion Rathbone

Jun Young Yoon

On-platform pumps provide greater flexibility and design freedom and are a key feature of organs-on-chip platforms. On-platform electromagnetic (EM) pumps have been developed for use with the organ-on-chip platforms. The EM pump uses electrical energy, which may be supplied by a battery, making the pump portable. The EM pump uses an EM actuator having a low energy consumption. The actuator's low energy consumption is achieved by a latching design which requires only a short pulse of energy to switch its state and where springs store some of the actuator kinetic energy, which is then recovered in the reverse stroke. This further reduces the energy consumption of the actuator. Also provided are injection-molded, single-use platforms with onboard diaphragm micro-pumps and various valve and pump geometries. The EM actuators easily integrate with these platforms, demonstrating pumping at a constant flowrate, no measurable temperature rise, and valve sealing against varying back-pressure.

Pumps and hardware for organ-on-chip platforms

A highly portable advanced adult and pediatric compact ECLS system is based around an integrated pump-oxygenator. The system includes a central a blood inlet and flow path extending along a general longitudinal axis of the system; a pump housing defining a pump inlet in fluid communication with the central blood flow path; an impeller rotationally received within the area of the pump inlet, wherein the impeller is magnetically supported and magnetically driven; an array of hollow fiber membranes configured for gas transfer within the system for oxygenation of blood flowing across the hollow fiber membranes, wherein the membranes include a covalently-bonded heparin-based bioactive surface, and wherein the blood flow path extends from the impeller to a position to flow perpendicular over the array of hollow fiber membranes; and a blood outlet configured to receive blood flowing past the array of hollow fiber membranes.

Adult and pediatric extracorporeal life support system with heparin treated oxygenator surface and magnetic levitation motor

Described are homopolar bearingless slice motors which include an array arrangement of permanent magnets on stator teeth, and a magnet-free rotor having a unique surface geometry. Also described are related components of such motors. The permanent magnet arrays provide homopolar bias flux to the rotor, and salient features on the rotor surface route the bias flux toward paths desirable for force and torque generation. In an illustrative embodiment, two magnet arrays are placed at the tips of stator teeth, so as to provide the bias flux via relatively short flux paths. By modulating current through windings based upon the rotor radial and angular position measurements, the stator can levitate and rotate the rotor.

Homopolar bearingless slice motors

Described is a bearingless motor based upon a homopolar flux-biased magnetic bearing for force generation and a hysteresis motor for torque generation. The bearingless slice motor levitates and rotates a ring-shaped rotor made of a semi-hard magnetic material. The rotor is biased with a homopolar permanent-magnetic flux, on which 2-pole flux can be superimposed to generate suspension forces. Torque is generated by a hysteretic coupling between the rotor and a rotating multi-pole stator field.

Growing community of inventors

Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Minkyun Noh