Passives in Power Electronics: Magnetic Component Design and Simulation

Today, high efficiency and high power density converters are fundamental to the continued profitable growth of the telecommunications, automotive, aerospace and data processing industries. High-frequency operation can lead to a reduction in magnetics size and an increase in power density. The tutorial begins with the fundamentals of magnetic component design for inductors and transformers. Inductor design methodology includes multiple coil inductors such as the flyback converter.

This is followed by transformer design, optimized for core and winding loss by proper selection of the maximum operating flux density based on the core loss properties. The winding is further optimized for high frequency loss with non-sinusoidal currents. Fringing, interleaving and litz wire are also covered. Practical designs include forward, pushpull and LLC resonant converters.

The 2nd day of the tutorial starts with the discussion of planar magnetics. Planar magnetics fabrication processes have several advantages over conventional magnetics: low profile, automated assembly and predictable parasitics amongst other. They also lend themselves to integrated magnetic solutions. Planar magnetic components are particularly suited to wireless power transfer because of their low profile.

A simulation approach and the numeric models will be presented in order to allow an easy application of the tutorial contents to power magnetic component designs. A sound understanding of different material properties is crucial for a proper choice of magnetic cores. The tutorial concludes with an in-depth overview and classification of industrially available permeable materials with a focus on high frequency applications.