Modeling of magnetic bandages for drug targeting: Button vs. Halbach arrays

Magnetic targeting of drugs to diseased tissues, such as non-healing wounds or skin tumors, is a promising clinical use of magnetic microspheres. For successful magnetic targeting, a magnet must be placed in close proximity to the target tissue. In this work the forces exerted on magnetic microspheres by different arrangements of magnets including a simple square magnet, a number of button magnet arrays, and a Halbach array were simulated and compared. Magnetic bandages utilizing a Halbach array configuration were found to yield the best trapping characteristics (large and uniform force distributions) for magnetic targeting applications close to a surface.