Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 564 (2022) 170093

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Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmmm

Low-frequency rotating and alternating magnetic field generators for

biological applications: Design details of home-made setups
N. Hallali a, b, T. Rocacher c, C. Crouzet a, b, J. Béard d, T. Douard a, b, A. Khalfaoui e,
N. Dias Martin a, b, F. Chouzenoux a, b, J. Carrey a, b, *
a
Université de Toulouse, INSA, UPS, LPCNO (Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie des Nano-Objets), 135 Avenue de Rangueil, F-31077 Toulouse, France
b
CNRS, UMR 5215, LPCNO, F-31077 Toulouse, France
c
Département Génie Electrique et Informatique, INSA, 135 Avenue de Rangueil, 31400 Toulouse, France
d
LNCMI (Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses), UPR 3228, CNRS-UGA-UPS-INSA, 143 Avenue de Rangueil, 31400 Toulouse, France
e
Atelier de mécanique, INSA, 135 Avenue de Rangueil, 31400 Toulouse, France

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: We describe a setup able to generate a rotating or alternating low-frequency (up to 10 Hz) magnetic field (up to
Setup 120 mT) for biological applications inside a 6 cm in diameter and 5 cm in height cylindrical space. It is suitable to
Cell death insert several Petri dishes for cell death experiments and mice for in vivo ones. Since a particular attention was
Rotating magnetic field
given to the field homogeneity, it is based on a six-pole electromagnet. The characteristics of the field are
Stator
Electromagnet
changed by varying the phase, amplitude or frequency of the electrical currents going through the coils, using a
micro-controller-based human–machine interface and a RL chopper, which is described. The results of the
magnetic simulations run to optimize the global design are provided. The cooling of the electromagnet is done
using a chiller, and the sample temperature regulation using an air blower. All details on the mechanical,
electrical and electronic elements, on the mounting, and on the programing are provided, so the setup can be
reproduced. Suggestions for a further improvement of the electrical efficiency are given. This setup has already
been used to demonstrate the possibility to kill cells using targeted magnetic nanoparticles and low-frequency
magnetic fields.

1. Introduction Recently, our group also published results confirming the efficiency
of low-frequency magnetic fields and magnetic nanoparticles to kill cells
In 2010, Dong-Hyun et al. [1] described a new anti-tumoral treat­ [17]. For this study, the amplitude and frequency values were screened
ment based on the injection of ferromagnetic microdiscs inside a me­ to determine the values maximizing cell death. Two oscillating modes of
dium containing tumoral cells. Thanks to the functionalization of the the magnetic field were also compared: rotating and alternating. We
microdisc surfaces, cell tumor membranes were targeted by these could demonstrate that the rotating one was more efficient, as expected
microdiscs. After the application of a low-frequency alternating mag­ theoretically [18]. There was also an optimal frequency, although its
netic field (up to 60 Hz and 13 mT), the mechanical oscillation of exact origin is still unclear. To explore the influence of these various
microdiscs induced cell death and cellular membrane degradations. parameters, a dedicated magnetic field generator was used.
Similar results were obtained by Leulmi et al. [2] in 2016. Since then, Generators for the treatment of tumors with low-frequency fields are
several research teams have published interesting results involving tu­ most of the time electromagnets producing alternating magnetic fields
moral cell death induced by low-frequency magnetic fields and different [3,4,6–14]. Rotating magnetic fields are less represented and are
micro- or nano- objects: nickel nanowires [3,4], nanocubes [5] or generally produced by moving magnets [5,15,16,19]. To our knowl­
nanospheres [6–16]. Different strategies of treatment were also studied: edge, the only article presenting a magnetic field generator able to
with [3,5,7,9,10,14] or without specific targeting produce low-frequency rotating and alternating magnetic field is based
[4,6,8,11,12,13,15,16]. on moving magnets [16]. In this setup, the oscillation mode switches

* Corresponding author at: Université de Toulouse, INSA, UPS, LPCNO (Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie des Nano-Objets), 135 Avenue de Rangueil, F-31077
Toulouse, France.
E-mail address: jcarrey@insa-toulouse.fr (J. Carrey).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmmm.2022.170093
Received 4 March 2022; Received in revised form 5 September 2022; Accepted 19 October 2022
Available online 25 October 2022
0304-8853/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
N. Hallali et al. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 564 (2022) 170093

from alternating (up to 100 mT and 8 Hz) to rotating (up to 200 mT at 2 3. Influence of electromagnet geometry on field amplitude and
Hz) by changing the sample localization inside the setup which causes homogeneity
problems of field homogeneity. Moreover, tuning the amplitude is only
possible by changing the magnets, which is not convenient and limits the 3.1. Number of poles
range of accessible values. In the present article, an electromagnet
permitting to change the amplitude, frequency and oscillation mode of The magnetic field homogeneity must be quantified to select the best
the field by controlling the current going through the coils is presented. configuration. In this way two studies are presented below: (i) the in­
More specifically, it is able to generate rotating or alternating magnetic fluence of the magnetic pole number on the magnetic field homogeneity
fields with an amplitude ranging from 0 to 120 mT with frequencies at mid-height of the electromagnet and (ii) magnetic field uniformity
from 0 to 10 Hz. according to the electromagnet’s height. All these observations were
During the conception of our setup, attention was paid to create a achieved thanks to COMSOL simulations and were used to choose the
homogeneous magnetic field. Indeed, in addition to the torque-induced final dimensions of our electromagnet. In COMSOL, the magnetic
cell death, several groups have used strong magnetic field gradients to module was used with standard hypotheses and models. The materials
induce biological responses [20]. Sometimes, it can be difficult to data (conductivity, permittivity) were the ones provided by the
discriminate if biological response is due to the presence of the field or to software.
the field gradient. The gradient in our setup was thus kept to a minimum, The magnetic field uniformity, for electromagnets with a different
in order to discard any effect other than the torque in our experiments. number of magnetic poles, was quantified by calculating the magnetic
Its conception and technical characteristics are detailed below, as field variance inside a slice of gap at mid-height of the electromagnet
well as possible improvements. (where the magnetic field amplitude is maximal). For each simulated
electromagnet, the gap had the same diameter, equal to 5 cm. This value
2. Generalities on electromagnets. will be justified below. The magnetic field variance (ΔB2) was calculated
from the magnetic field map, which consists in a triangular mesh, with a
An alternating magnetic field can be generated by a single pair of magnetic field value associated to each node, and reads:
electromagnets, as shown in Fig. 1(a). The magnetic field amplitude and ∑n
frequency are controlled by those of the electrical current. To create a (Bc − Bi)2 2
ΔB2 = i=0 [T ]
rotating magnetic field, it is necessary to have several electromagnets, n
the resulting magnetic field being the sum of the one generated by each with Bc the magnetic field value at the center, Bi the magnetic field
electromagnet. Each of them is named magnetic pole and the space value of one node inside the gap, and n the number of nodes inside the
between them is named gap. Electromagnets have to be arranged in gap.
space (i.e. space shift) so that, with an adequate value of phase shift According to Fig. 3, by comparing the results for 3 coils and 3 pairs of
between the current circulating inside the coils, the resulting magnetic coils it is possible to note that paired coils produce a more uniform
field rotates. Fig. 1(b) represents two pairs of coils angle shifted in space magnetic field than unpaired ones. Moreover, the figure evidences that
and traversed by two alternating electrical currents with the same increasing the number of magnetic poles increases the field uniformity.
amplitude and the same frequency but phase shifted in time. The phase Aiming at simplifying the realization of the electrical generator, we
shifts depend on the number of coil pairs: for instance, with two, three or selected the configuration with 3 pairs of coils since the variance of the
four pairs of coils, shift value equals π/2, 2π/3 or π/4, respectively. field was in accordance with our needs and three-phase generators are
In the remaining of this part, we will consider electromagnets dis­ more documented than fourth or fifth ones. From now, only this
playing a geometry similar to a stator core (see Fig. 2). This geometry configuration will be considered. In this case, to generate a rotating or
minimizes the leaks of magnetic field, focusing the latter at the center of alternating magnetic field, the phase current associated with each pair of
the stator core, creating a rather strong field in the gap. The free space coils must be equal to the values shown in Table 1:
between each tip (usually named stator teeth) is a notch and is generally
filled with coil wires.

Fig. 1. Illustration of magnetic field generators, the + symbol permits to identify the rotational direction of the coil winding. Coils with the same color have the same
winding rotational direction. (a) Two identical coils facing each other to generate an alternating magnetic field (AMF). (b) Two pairs of coils angle shifted in space to
produce a uniform rotating magnetic field (RMF).

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N. Hallali et al. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 564 (2022) 170093

Fig. 2. Illustration of several magnetic cores (with 2, 3 or 4 magnetic poles) and the corresponding coil arrangement.

3.2. Influence of height

From now, an electromagnet with the dimensions mentioned in

Fig. 4 will be considered. The inner diameter value was chosen to have a
gap large enough to apply a magnetic field on Cellview dishes for in-
vitro experiments or on mice for in-vivo ones. The size of notches was
selected to contain enough coil turns to obtain a magnetic field ampli­
tude at least equal to 100 mT and to leave some space left for the cooling
liquid, provided that the maximum current was 10 A and the wire sec­
tion 1.7 × 0.8 mm2. It leaded to 800 coil turns and a total diameter for
the electromagnet of 20 cm [see Fig. 4(b)].
A study on magnetic field uniformity according to the electromag­
net’s height was performed (see Fig. 5). Our objective was to determine
the minimum height so the magnetic field uniformity is good enough to
include at least two Cellview dishes or a mouse inside the gap. This
Fig. 3. Calculation of the RMF amplitude uniformity inside the gap for various
requires the field to be homogeneous on a height of 5 cm. Firstly, the
coil configurations.
magnetic field amplitude at the center of the gap as a function of the
electromagnet height (G) was extracted from COMSOL simulations for a
Table 1 current I of 10 A and 840 coil turns [see Fig. 5(a)]. The same set of data
Current phase associated with each pair of coils to obtain a rotating or an permits to plot (i) the maximum magnetic field value as a function of G
alternating magnetic field. [see Fig. 5(b)], and (ii) the thickness on which the field is homogeneous
Magnetic field mode CURRENT PHASES as function of G [see Fig. 5(c)]. In the latter case, it corresponds to the
zone where the field values are larger than 90% of its maximum value.
Rotating Alternating
Fig. 5(a) and Fig. 5(b) show that the magnetic field value is maximal
Pair of coils n 1 (θ1 )
◦
0 0 at mid-height of the electromagnet, with a value increasing from 127 mT
Pair of coils n◦ 2 (θ2 ) 2π/3
for G = 4 cm to 142 mT for G = 12 cm. From G = 12 cm onward, the
π
Pair of coils n◦ 3 (θ3 ) 4π/3 π
maximum magnetic field value plateaus (for G = 30 cm, its value is 144
mT). Fig. 5(c) shows that the thickness of magnetic field homogeneity
increases linearly with G, and can be fitted with a linear curve. Inter­
polating the curve in Fig. 5(c) allows one to determine that an

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N. Hallali et al. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 564 (2022) 170093

Fig. 4. Illustration of the electromagnet magnetic core in its final geometry. (a) 3D view. (b) top view with the six notches (in blue) and the gap (in green).

Fig. 5. Magnetic field parameters as a function of electromagnet height G extracted from COMSOL simulations. (a) Magnetic field at the gap center as a function of
the position for different G values. (b) and (c) are extracted from (a) and show the (b) maximum magnetic field value and (c) thickness of homogeneity (h) at the gap
center. In (c), the equation is the linear fit of the data, shown as a plain line.

electromagnet height of 7 cm is enough to get an homogeneity thickness currents generated inside the material are limited. We simulated using
of 5 cm, the field inside this zone being at least equal to 133 mT (92% of COMSOL the influence on the electromagnet properties of three types of
142 mT). Thus we choose to limit the electromagnet height to 7 cm materials: Fe-Si, Fe-Co and soft iron (see supplementary material). The
because the magnetic field characteristics were adequate for our pur­ choice of material does not have an influence on the maximum magnetic
pose; this also permits to limit the electromagnet weight and cost. field into the gap. We thus chose to work with silicon steel because of its
good corrosion resistance (better than soft iron) which is an important
3.3. Influence of core material point for our setup since the electromagnet is then immerged inside an
aqueous cooling liquid. Moreover, its electrical resistance is larger than
The influence of the magnetic core material on the magnetic field the one of soft iron, and it is possible to use assemblies of silicon iron
amplitude generated inside the gap was then investigated. For this kind sheet, which both prevent the generation of eddy current inside the core.
of application, the perfect material has a low coercive magnetic field HC
(soft magnetic material), a high saturation magnetization, and eddy

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N. Hallali et al. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 564 (2022) 170093

4. Electromagnet manufacturing latter further, blue Stycast epoxy resin (2850 FT) and catalyst 24LV (7 %
m) were spread on each layer of the coil before winding the next one.
This part is focused on setup production, which can be split in 4 The electrical characteristics of each pair of coils are detailed in
steps: (i) electromagnet core manufacturing, (ii) electromagnet core Table 2, and are close to the one obtained from COMSOL simulations:
winding, (iii) power generation, (iv) cooling system.

4.2. Power generation

4.1. Core and coil mounting
To generate the magnetic field, an electrical system was designed
Firstly, the silicon-iron core was built by laser cutting (LCD Laser Cut allowing the generation of either a rotating or alternating magnetic field
AG, Switzerland), according to the dimensions mentioned in Fig. 4, with with an amplitude ranging from 0 to 120 mT and a frequency between
a height of 7 cm. To minimize eddy currents, it was chosen to design the 0 and 10 Hz. To permit this large variety of magnetic fields, the elec­
electromagnet core with 0.35 mm thick silicon-iron sheets assembled by tronic system must be able to generate three alternating currents of
an insulation varnish (M270-350A), which is adequate for a maximum controllable amplitude, frequency and phase. For this specific need we
working frequency of 10 Hz. The final result is shown in Fig. 6(a). chose to design our own electrical system based on the RL chopper
Then, we mounted the coils around each teeth of the electromagnet principle. This method has the advantage to permit the control of the
core. Two methods for mounting the coils were tested. The first one, electrical current parameters independently of each other and is often
shown in Fig. 6(b), consisted in splitting each teeth coil in two small used to control electrical motors.
ones. They were winded around two 3D-printed plastic supports of A schematic illustration of the designed electrical system is available
different sizes reproducing the teeth. In this way, coils could be directly in Fig. 7(a) and contains two major blocs. The first one, the power
inserted around the electromagnet teeth. The splitting in two was controller, used a microcontroller board (Nucleo STM32F103) gener­
required since the size of the coils would not have permitted their direct ating pulse width modulation (PWM) signals, the phases, cyclic rates
insertion around the teeth. The second method consisted in cutting the and periodicity of which directly depends on the parameters chosen by
electromagnet core in six equal parts to isolate each teeth, and then to the user : field type (alternating or rotating), amplitude and frequency
wind the coil around each teeth [see Fig. 6(c)]. This method took less [see Fig. 7(b)]. The code integrated to the Nucleo card is available in SI-
time and leaded to a larger filling factor for the coils. Moreover, in case a Annex.
coil would be damaged or malfunction, this method permits to replace it
easily. However, the major inconvenient is the necessity to ensure a Table 2
proper assembly of the teeths [see Fig. 6(d)] to avoid a decrease of the Measured and simulated electrical characteristics of each pair of coils. The
magnetic field amplitude due to the space between each part. method to measure the mutual inductance is explained in S.I.
The coils were made of 800 turns of a rectangular section copper wire Experiments COMSOL simulations
(1.7 × 0.8 mm2), and were winded using a semi-automatic winder
Electrical resistance, R (Ω) 2.5 ± 0.1 3
(LNCMI, Toulouse). A rectangular wire was used because it leads to a Self-inductance, L (mH) 75.3 ± 1.2 69
higher filling factor and thus permits to generate a larger magnetic field Mutual inductance, M (mH) 15.9 ± 0.2 14.3
with the same electrical current than a circular wire. Moreover, a large Conversion factor (mT/A) 8.0 ± 0.1 7.3
filling factor improves thermal diffusion into the coil. To improve the

Fig. 6. Photography of electromagnet core and coils. (a) Electromagnet core. (b) First method of assembling (see text). The yellow box shows the separated coils and
the red one the 3D-printed coil supports. The right image shows the assembled coils. (c) Second method of assembling (see text). Picture of the coils winded on the
individual teeth. (d) CAD picture of the home-made object used to assemble individual teeth.

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N. Hallali et al. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 564 (2022) 170093

Fig. 7. Electrical system designed to generate variable magnetic fields. (a) Schematic representation of the electric system. L1, L2 and L3 represent each pairs of coils.
(b) and (c) Pictures of the system.

PWMs are transmitted to power inverters to control MOS transistors, electrical current goes through L3 according to its winding rotational
which act as fast switches for the DC electrical current provided by an direction [illustrated by the + symbol in Fig. 7(a)]. In this configuration
external DC power source (EA-PS-3080-20C, Elektro-automatik). The with three pairs of coils, if B0 is the magnetic field amplitude generated
chopped electrical currents (output A, output B and output C) passing by L3, the resulting alternating magnetic field amplitude Btot = 1.5B0 .
through the transistor outputs are then connected to the coil pairs (L) According to Table 2 and to the specificity of the delta configuration
such as: L1 is between outputs B and C, L2 is between outputs A and B, L3 described above, it is possible to deduce that a current amplitude I0 of 10
is between outputs A and C. In this configuration and with a large A is able to generate a magnetic field B0 around 80 mT so that Btot equals
enough PWM frequency (at least 100 higher than the required alter­ 120 mT.
nating electrical current frequency) it is possible to generate a sinusoidal Finally, note that each pair of coils reacts like a RL electrical circuit
signal: this is the principle of the RL chopper. (or low pass filter), so the electrical power required to drive the coils is
Because the phase signal voltage varies from 0 V to the one provided frequency dependent. Table 2 allows to deduce the cut-off frequency of
by the external DC power source (in our case: 80 V), the electrical cur­ the circuit: fc = 2π(L−R M) ≈ 6.7 Hz. At this frequency, for the same elec­
rent out of the power inverter is an alternating signal with a positive trical tension powered by the DC source, the electrical current is
mean value (the same for each phase). In this case, the magnetic field √̅̅̅
attenuated by a factor 2 compared to its value at lower frequency.
generated by each pair of coils is an alternating magnetic field with a
Above this frequency, the electrical current still decreases following Ix =
positive mean value, not suitable if one wants to generate a pure alter­
nating or rotating magnetic field inside the gap. To avoid this problem,
I0
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
x2 +1
with = ffc . To compensate this phenomenon we used a slightly
the pairs of coils are linked together in a delta configuration, as shown in oversized DC source able to provide electrical current up to 10 A for
Fig. 7(a). In this configuration, the electrical current going through each frequencies larger than 6.7 Hz. However, above 10 Hz the decrease of
pair of coils becomes an alternating signal with a null mean value. It is electrical current becomes too important, which explains why this setup
important to note that, in this delta configuration, generating a rotating is limited to 10 Hz. Fig. 7(c) shows the home-made power controller and
magnetic field requires the three outputs (A, B and C) to be phase shifted power inverter; all PCB card circuits are detailed in SI-Fig. 2, permitting
as described in Table 1. In this case, the resulting magnetic field an easy reproduction of this setup.
amplitude Btot = 1.5B0 , with B0 the magnetic field amplitude of one pair
of coils. 4.3. Cooling
To generate an alternating magnetic field, in order to obtain the
phase shifts displayed in Table 1, output B has to be turned off. For an With an alternating current of 10 A, the dissipated power equals 375
alternating magnetic field, L1 and L2 are connected in series and in W, whatever the frequency (and 750 W with a DC signal of 10A on each
parallel of L3. Thus, the electrical current going through L3 is twice output). Thus, to avoid damaging the electromagnet by its own heating,
higher than the one of L2 and L1. Moreover, the current in L3 is naturally a cooling system was designed to absorb the heated generated when the
in phase opposition with respect to the one in L2 or L1 since when the magnetic field is on.

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N. Hallali et al. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 564 (2022) 170093

To achieve this cooling system, an airtight box was designed (ERM, 5.2. Windings
France) in PMMA and stainless steel [see Fig. 8(a)]. It allows a pres­
surized circulation (3 bar maximum) of cooling liquid (glycol water) and Our numerical simulations suggest another way to wind the coil
permits to rotate the electromagnet by 90◦ to achieve experiments on allowing an increase of the magnetic field generated inside the gap for
Cellview dishes (vertical position) or small animals (horizontal posi­ an identical electrical power. This winding − named “stator winding” −
tion). The dimensions of the box are available in SI-Fig. 3. Glycol water consists in winding a coil between two diametrically opposed notches as
is cooled by a chiller (TAEevo Tech Mini 05, MTA, France) with a shown in Fig. 9(a). The stator winding generates a magnetic field 50%
cooling power of 2.15 kW, which is large enough to absorb the dissi­ higher than the standard winding [see Fig. 9(b)] at an equivalent elec­
pated power. Fig. 8(b) illustrates the complete setup with its different trical power, associated with a similar increase of the coil inductance.
parts: electromagnet, electronics and cooling system. However, the major inconvenient of the stator configuration is the
Finally, to maintain the gap at 37 ◦ C during experiment on cells, a hot winding itself. Indeed, as shown in SI-Fig. 6, the classical method using a
air blower was developed (see SI-Fig. 4 and the associated text). For single wire to make one coil takes too much space above and below the
experiments on mice, it is preconized to use thermo-regulated mouse electromagnet and prevents winding of the two other coils. We did not
bead. find a way to solve this problem but let it open to potential ingenious
An alternative and cheaper version of the box is also possible, but it readers which might succeed in finding a way to solve it, which could
limits experiments to Cellview dishes since only the vertical position is permit to take advantage of the gain in energy.
available. In this case, the box is not an airtight one but is a simple
plastic container with a hole on the top permitting to insert the samples
inside a plastic tube leading to the electromagnet’s gap (see SI-Fig. 5). A 5.3. Frequency limitation
table comparing the cost of these two versions is available in SI-Tab.1.
This second version is the one which was used in Ref.[17]: it could As mentioned in part IV.2, magnetic field generation is frequency
allow our group to demonstrate the efficiency of magneto-mechanical limited by the intrinsic electrical properties of coils (see R and L values
treatments on tumoral cells, especially when the magnetic field rotates. in Table 2). For this reason, the maximal frequency usable is 10 Hz. To
push this limit to a higher value we proposed three different solutions:
5. Optimizations (i) Use of powerful generator. Our setup was able to reach 10 Hz
because we use an oversized power generator: the power required to run
The setup presented in the previous part could be optimized in order a 1 (10) Hz current was around 375 (3 8 5) W, respectively. With the
to obtain a higher energy efficiency. The following parts concerns three same setup, reaching 100 Hz with a current of 10 A would require a
optimization ways that we suggest, but have not been implemented on 1000 W power generator. In this case, it is also necessary to check if the
our setup. The first one concerns the thermal regulation of the setup and electrical components connected to the power DC source are able to
the last two should permit to generate a larger magnetic field or fre­ support higher voltages. It is important to note that even if the DC power
quency with the same electric power, or the same magnetic field with a source is increased, the maximal dissipated thermal power would stay
lower electrical power. constant since it only depends on the electrical current amplitude and
electrical resistance (R).
(ii) Wind smaller coils. In this case, coils inductance would decrease
5.1. Thermal regulation
and the cut-off frequency would be higher. However, this means the use
of smaller electromagnet, and thus a smaller homogeneity height [see
Another version of the cooling system, certainly more expensive,
Fig. 5(a)].
consists on the use of a thermo-regulated circulating bath allowing
(iii) Use of electrical resonance. By placing a capacitor in series with
heating or cooling the glycol–water to maintain the gap at a certain
each coil it is possible to compensate the attenuation caused by RL cir­
temperature (37 ◦ C for example). In this way, in function of the magnetic
cuit for a specific frequency, the resonant frequency (fR ) such as fR =
field amplitude and thus in function of the electrical power used, totally 1
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅, with C the capacitance value of the capacitor. Then, with a
or a part of the thermal energy produced by Joule effect by the elec­ 2π (L− M)C
tromagnet would be used to heat the gap. capacitor box connected to each coil it becomes possible to select

Fig. 8. Setup pictures. (a) Airtight box containing the stainless steel tube permitting the insertion of Cellview dishes or mice into the gap. (b) Complete setup.

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N. Hallali et al. Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials 564 (2022) 170093

Fig. 9. Presentation of the “stator winding”. (a) Illustrations from COMSOL simulations of the standard and stator windings for a similar electromagnet core; only one
phase has been winded, for clarity. (b) Comparison of the magnetic field amplitude inside the gap for the two types of winding. The electrical density equals 294 kA/
cm2 (corresponding to 10 A and 400 coils turns with a 1.7 × 0.8 mm2 copper wire). The magnetic field values are normalized by the one obtained with the
standard winding.

different value of capacitance to obtain different value of resonant fre­ Acknowledgements

quency for which the attenuation due to RL circuit is compensated. With
the setup presented above, to obtain a resonant frequency around 10 Hz, This project has been funded by the ITMO Cancer (convention
a non-polarized 4.3 mF capacitor should be connected to each coil. For 17CP070-00), by the ANR under the contract ProjetANR-19-CE09-0024,
safety reason, a capacitor discharge circuit should also be designed and and by the Labex NEXT.
connected to each of the capacitor boxes.
Among these three solutions, the (i) and (ii) seems technically less
difficult to achieve than the (iii) which also needs to take some pre­ Data availability statement
cautions in the aim to ensure user safety. Nevertheless this last solution
is the one presenting the higher energy efficiency. The data that supports the findings of this study are available within
the article and its supplementary material.
6. Conclusion
Appendix A. Supplementary data
We described an electromagnet able to generate an oscillating ho­
mogeneous magnetic field inside a 6 cm in diameter and 5 cm in height The supplementary materials is composed of three separated files.
cylindrical space. From the electromagnet design to the cooling system, The main one contains additional text and figures, as well as the code
from the electrical power generation to the Nucleo programming, all uploaded on the Nucleo Card. The two other files, named “PCB_Po­
elements permitting its complete reproduction are described in this wer_Controller.pdf” and “PCB_Power_Inverter.pdf” contain a drawing of
article. Initially, this setup was achieved to generate low-frequency the PCB cards for the controller and the inverter, respectively. Supple­
magnetic fields to treat tumoral cells with internalized magnetic nano­ mentary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.10
particles [17]. However, it should be also useful for any other biological 16/j.jmmm.2022.170093.
applications involving low-frequency magnetic fields such as control of
the calcium entry within cells [21], improvement of gene transfection References
[22], drug release stimulation [23] or enzymes activation [24]. It is also
adapted to in-vivo experiments on mice. We hope that the information [1] D.-H. Kim, E.A. Rozhkova, I.V. Ulasov, S.D. Bader, T. Rajh, M.S. Lesniak,
contained in this article will be useful to home-builders or to companies V. Novosad, Nat. Mat. 9 (2010) 165.
[2] S. Leulmi, X. Chauchet, M. Morcette, G. Ortiz, H. Joisten, P. Sabon, T. Livache,
aiming at selling such setups. Y. Hou, M. Carrière, S. Lequien, B. Dieny, Nanoscale 7 (2015) 15904.
[3] M. F. Contreras, T. Ravasi, J. Kosel, IEEE 47, MECBME Conference (2014).
[4] M.F. Contreras, R. Sougrat, A. Zaher, T. Ravasi, J. Kosel. Int. J. Nanomedicine 10
CRediT authorship contribution statement (2015) 2141.
[5] Y. Shen, C. Wu, T.Q.P. Uyeda, G.R. Plaza, B. Liu, Y. Han, M.S. Lesniak, Y. Cheng,
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Declaration of Competing Interest [10] H. Ju, Y. Cui, Z. Chen, Q. Fu, M. Sun, Y. Zhou, Am. J. Transl. Res. 8 (2016) 1838.
[11] A.M. Master, P.N. Williams, N. Pothayee, N. Pothayee, R. Zhang, H.M. Vishwasrao,
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial Y.I. Golovin, J.S. Riffle, M. Sokolsky, A.V. Kabanov, Sci. Rep. 6 (2016) 33560.
[12] K. Urbas, M. Jedrzejczak-Silicka, R. Rakoczy, D. Zaborski, E. Mijowska,
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
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the work reported in this paper. [13] W. Li, Y. Liu, Z. Qian, Y. Yang, Sci Rep. 7 (2017) 46287.
[14] I.V. Belyanina, T.N. Zamay, G.S. Zamay, S.S. Zamay, O.S. Kolovskaya, T.
Data availability I. Ivanchenko, V.V. Denisenko, A.K. Kirichenko, Y.E. Glazyrin, I.V. Garanzha, V.
V. Grigorieva, A.V. Shabanov, D.V. Veprintsev, A.E. Sokolov, V.M. Sadovskii,
A. Gargaun, M.V. Berezovski, A.S. Kichkailo, Theranostics. 7 (2017) 3326.
Data will be made available on request. [15] S. Du, J. Li, C. Du, Z. Huang, G. Chen, W. Yan, Oncotarget. 8 (2017) 9410.

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