Power Supply Inductor Design

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True Power Research is a power electronics consultant and provider of custom power supply designs.

Inductor Design

Inductor design and/or specification is an essential part of developing switching power supplies. The power inductor stores energy at critical times which in concert with energy storage capacitors and high frequency switching, enable the creation of energy packets from the source to be efficiently moved to the output in the form required by the load.

Inductors in a switching converter usually operate with or without a DC bias at high frequencies anywhere from 20kHz up to and beyond 1MHz. Thoughtful design of inductors is critical to the satisfactory performance of the power supply. Inductor design is typically an iterative process taking the following effects and parameters into consideration:

* Required inductance at the peak DC bias
* DC bias
* Core shape
* Core size
* Core magnetics material
* Turns count
* Flux density
* Wire size
* Winding arrangement
* Leakage inductance (if a coupled inductor design)
* Skin effect
* Proximity effect
* Parasitic capacitance
* Self resonant frequency
* Core loss
* Copper loss
* Fringing effect
* Temperature rise
* Shielding requirements
* And some others

Inductors are actually quite complex, but we have the magnetics experience that you need. Call or email us today for your inductor design requirements.