A shunt plate is provided that is associated with a first side of a multi-pole magnetic structure. The shunt plate provides a magnetic short between opposite polarity magnetic sources on the first side of said magnetic structure, the magnetic short causing a magnetic flux of said opposite polarity magnetic sources to be routed from said first side of the magnetic structure through said magnetic structure to the second side of said magnetic structure. The thickness of the shunt plate is selected by determining the integrated flux across a magnetic source of the magnetic structure such that the corresponding flux density in the shunt plate does not substantially exceed the flux density saturation level of a cross section of the shunt plate.