Altium Designer | easywaysimu Engineering

Altium PCB Magnetorquer Design

Embedded Air-Coil PCB Layout

A multilayer PCB air-coil system was designed in Altium Designer for attitude control of a hexagonal small spacecraft. The design investigates how single coils, multi-coil boards and switchable coil combinations can generate controlled magnetic moment while respecting thermal and power constraints.

Step 01

Hexagonal Spacecraft Attitude-Control Context

The air-coil system is intended for a hexagonal prism-shaped small spacecraft. The coil boards are treated as embedded attitude-control elements that interact with Earth’s magnetic field to produce control torque without using bulky mechanical actuators.

Single coil PCB dimensions in Altium Designer

Step 02

Single-Coil Baseline Geometry

The single-coil PCB defines the baseline trace path, coil spacing and dimensional reference used for subsequent multi-coil layouts. Keeping the base geometry consistent allows the effect of coil count and connection arrangement to be evaluated fairly.

Step 03

Multi-Coil PCB Replication

The same air-coil pattern is replicated into three-coil and six-coil Altium layouts. This enables modular construction of larger combinations while preserving the trace geometry, turn layout and board-level spacing rules.

Three-coil PCB layout in Altium Designer

Step 04

Switchable Coil Combinations

The design explores series, parallel and matrix-like combinations such as 24x1, 4x6, 6x4, 3x8, 8x3, 2x12, 12x2 and 1x24. These switching alternatives allow the same embedded coil concept to be tuned for different mission priorities.

Magnetic Moment and Thermal Study

Coil Configuration Performance Analysis

After creating the Altium coil layouts, the project compares current, voltage, temperature, power dissipation and magnetic moment for each combination. The results show how connection strategy changes thermal control, available torque and power demand.

Key aspects of embedded air-coil analysis

Step 01

Analysis Criteria

The evaluation focuses on magnetic moment generation, power consumption, torque-producing behaviour and heat generation. These criteria determine whether a selected coil arrangement is suitable for precision attitude control or thermal-limited operation.

Step 02

Single-Coil Baseline Response

The single-coil plots provide a reference for how current, voltage, power dissipated and magnetic moment vary with temperature and applied voltage. This baseline is used to assess whether larger coil combinations improve magnetic performance without excessive heat generation.

Step 03

Series and Parallel Comparison

The 24-coil series and parallel arrangements show clear trade-offs. Series wiring is useful for controlling temperature and power dissipation, while parallel wiring can increase current and voltage demand and therefore requires closer thermal management.

Step 04

Matrix Combination Results

Matrix combinations such as 4x6, 6x4, 8x3, 3x8, 12x2 and 2x12 are compared to understand how physical arrangement affects magnetic strength, temperature, voltage and dissipated power.

Thermal priority

8x3 / 12x2 options

These arrangements are useful when lower temperature and reduced dissipated power are more important than the absolute maximum magnetic moment.

Magnetic strength

2x12 / 3x8 options

Higher-current arrangements can provide stronger magnetic response, but they require careful review of temperature rise and power dissipation.

Balanced design

Configuration choice

The final coil selection should match mission priorities: pointing authority, available power budget, allowable heat generation and board-level integration limits.

Altium Designer Embedded Air-Coil Projects

PCB Coil Geometry

Magnetic, Power and Thermal Response