I envision a piezoelectric ratchet stepping motor to circulate blood as an improvement to the HeartMate II. The digital piezoelectric turbine will circulate blood with more accuracy and control than a linear electric motor. With low power consumption, less parts and natural redundancy of design will ensure its reliability. The large surface area of the piezoelectric drive(stator) will provide more torque and less EMF. This motor would be direct drive- eliminating gears and backlash that are factors in other motors. The motor uses the motion of the crystals when voltage is applied. The crystals can be driven by sine, square and other various wave forms as well as varying speed and direction per input.

To show how it works, lets use a kids game where a ring of children form with a single child standing in the middle. The middle child falls to an edge and is moved around by the hands in a circle. This is the basis of the motor. The white outer ring is a cylinder (stator) with its brown surface coated with hundreds (millions?) of piezoelectric crystals. The crystals form columns along the length of the cylinder. Each crystal is wired to pulse from an input signal. As a signal wave is input, a column of crystals will pulse. As the input wave progresses from column to column, the crystals react like a stadium of fans preforming the “Wave.” The orange inner (rotor) ring fits in a fashion (friction or steps) such that it is pushed around like the kid in the middle of the circle. As the black rotor spins, blood is moved. The turbine rotor can be replaced with a different styles to suit the need.

Innovation, increased control, low power and being economical are the reasons to bring this new motor to the world.