Abstract Commonly used methods for generating diffraction-free beams are prone to signal loss or coding errors. Therefore, a method of generating a diffraction-free beam based on a magnetic fluid deformation mirror (MFDM) with dual-layer actuators is proposed. It can produce the desired wavefront in real-time and has the advantages of a large magnitude of mirror deformation, low manufacturing cost, continuous and smooth surface, and easy expansion of the actuator. In this paper, a driver circuit is designed based on Simulink and NI-6363 data acquisition card for the MFDM with its multi-channel control ability. The experiment result shows that the driver circuit can accurately produce the signal for each channel, and has the advantages of stable output, simple operation, and strong expandability.