Glossary

Every term of art in the coded-magnet world, defined in one or two sentences.

Term	Definition
Maxel	A magnetic pixel — one small (~1 mm) region of chosen N or S polarity written into a magnet face by a single magnetizing pulse. The unit cell of every coded pattern.
Magnetic code	The designed spatial arrangement of maxel polarities on a magnet face; determines the part's entire force behavior.
Correlation	The signal-processing operation that gives coded magnets their behavior: net force between two coded faces tracks the spatial correlation of their codes — peak when matched and aligned, collapsed (~10× less) otherwise.
Correlated magnetics	CMR's name for the discipline: designing magnet pairs whose interaction is governed by code correlation.
Field emission structure	The patents' term (US 7,800,471) for a coded magnetic surface.
Spatial force function	The engineered force-vs-position curve of a coded pair — the thing you actually design. Can cross zero, change sign, hold detents.
Multipole	Any magnet with more than one pole pair on a face — includes simple alternating stripes (fridge magnets, encoder rings) and, as a special designed case, coded magnets.
Halbach array	A periodic rotating-magnetization arrangement that throws uniform flux out one side (Mallinson 1973, Halbach 1980s). Cousin to coding: periodic and field-shaping rather than aperiodic and force-function-shaping.
Near field / far field	The two regimes of a patterned surface: intense within a fraction of the pole pitch, decaying as e^(−2πz/λ) beyond. Fine pitch = strong and short; coarse = weaker and longer.
Barker code	Low-autocorrelation binary sequences from radar; used in the foundational patents because their off-peak sidelobes never exceed 1 — the property that makes alignment sharp and mismatch weak.
Polymagnet®	CMR's trademark for its coded magnets — the brand name; the company is Correlated Magnetics Research, Inc.
MagPrinter	CMR's magnetizing printer (2013; desktop Mini 2014): writes maxels one ~0.8 ms pulse at a time from a software pattern.
Spring / Latch / Align / Twist-Release / Attach / Shear / Torque / Detent	The eight catalog behaviors — see the full chapter with datasheet numbers.
Earnshaw's theorem	No static arrangement of permanent magnets can stably levitate an object free in space. Why every magnetic-spring demo rides a pin.
Energy product (MGOe)	The figure of merit for magnet material strength (NdFeB ~52 MGOe max). Coding redistributes this energy spatially; it cannot exceed it.
Electropermanent magnet	A magnet switchable on/off with a current pulse (Magswitch et al.) — "programmable in time," complementary to coding's "programmable in space."
Maxel pitch (λ)	Spacing of the maxel pattern; sets field reach via e^(−2πz/λ). The single most important design knob.
Viewing film	Magneto-optical film that makes a maxel pattern visible as a green-on-dark texture — the quickest way to see the code.

Where do these definitions come from? Sources & further reading →