Design Flexibility of a Modular Low-Loss High-Frequency Inductor Structure

• Published in: IEEE transactions on power electronics 2021-11, Vol.36 (11), p.13013-13024
• Main Authors: Yang, Rachel S., Hanson, Alex J., Sullivan, Charles R., Perreault, David J.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Copper; Design modifications; Distributed gap; field shaping; Flexibility; Form factors; high frequency (HF); Inductance; Inductors; Magnetic cores; magnetics; Miniaturization; Modular construction; Modular design; Modular structures; Periodic structures; skin effect; Windings; Wires
• ISSN: 0885-8993; 1941-0107
• DOI: 10.1109/TPEL.2021.3076774

Miniaturization and efficiency of power electronics are limited by magnetic components, which are difficult to scale to small size and high frequency (HF). Inductor structures using field shaping, quasi-distributed gaps, and modular construction can achieve low loss at HF (3-30 MHz) without litz wire. For widespread adoption though, these structures must be shown to remain effective across a wide design range and be economical to manufacture. This article investigates the design flexibility of one such previously proposed inductor structure with a modified pot core and demonstrates that this structure can provide excellent performance for a wide range of inductance and power handling requirements using only a few sets of manufactured core pieces. The core pieces used in the modified pot core structure can be scaled by 4× in volume, compared to roughly 2× for conventional core families, and still achieve high performance over a wide design space. Moreover, this approach can achieve about half the loss of conventional designs at HF and, unlike conventional core sets, can provide a range of low-loss form factors with a single family of components. The proposed inductor structure and design approaches, thus, offer new opportunities in the practical production of low-loss HF inductors.