Abstract: A linear motor is disclosed, the linear motor comprising a longitudinal coil assembly comprising coil units arranged in a cascading manner and a magnet track spaced from the coil assembly, and adapted to move along a path which traces a periphery of the coil assembly. The linear motor further comprises sensors, each sensor being associated with a subset of the coil units, and adapted to send a first sensor signal in response to detecting the magnet track. The linear motor further comprises a control unit, wherein the control unit is configured to receive the first sensor signal, identify the sensor which sent the first sensor signal, and power up the subset of the coil units associated with the sensor.

Abstract: An integrated coil assembly (10), a multi-phase linear motor having the integrated coil assembly (10) and a method (100) for forming the integrated coil assembly (10) are described. The integrated coil assembly (10) has multi-phase coils with each multi-phase coil (20) having a number of coil loops based upon the number of electrical phases of current required by the multi-phase linear motor. The coil loops of different multi-phase coils are interweaved at two opposing portions (11,12) and are substantially parallel at two other opposing portions (13,14). In the method (100), different wire dispensers wind coil loops for different electrical phase for each multi-phase coil (20). However, the same wire dispenser winds coil loops that are for the same electrical phase for different multi-phase coils (20). The coil loops for each multi-phase coil (20) are wound before the coil loops of another multi-phase coil (20) are wound.