IEEE IAS Annual Meeting New Orleans, LA, October 5-9, 1997

Minimum Loss Design of a 100 kHz Inductor with Litz Wire

Ashkan Rahimi-Kian Ali Keyhani Jeffrey M. Powell
Student Member, IEEE Senior Member, IEEE Department of Electrical Engineering Research and Development The Ohio State University Liebert Corporation Columbus, OH 43210 Columbus, OH 43229 Phone (614) 292-4430, E-mail: {ashkan, keyhani@ee.eng.ohio-state.edu}

Abstract - In this paper, a minimum loss design of a 100 kHz inductor with litz wire using an iterative design procedure is presented. The finite element analysis method has been used to investigate the effects of air-gaps and number of turns on the field distribution, operating flux density, leakage flux and core losses.

discrete air-gaps, is used to avoid this problem [1]. II. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION The objective of this study is to develop an iterative inductor design procedure and to minimize the core and winding losses of an inductor using the finite element method. The two fundamental issues in the design of any highpower high-frequency inductor are minimum losses and low leakage flux. Core losses and winding losses are strongly related to the frequency. Core loss, for a given frequency and flux density, is material dependent. Therefore, as a first step in the design process, an investigation of various high frequency core materials is essential. Copper loss in the inductor is extremely sensitive to the leakage flux distribution in the window area, which in turn is dependent on the core and winding geometry. The characteristics of a good core material include low specific losses (defined as losses per unit volume or per unit mass) at high operating frequencies, high saturation flux density, high power/weight ratio, and good thermal and mechanical properties. In high-frequency inductor design, low loss materials such as Ferrite, Permalloy80 and Metglas2605SC are clearly the best choices. Table 1 lists some of their salient properties. However, the Ferrite material has higher losses than the Permalloy80, it has a wide range of core geometries and lower cost than Permalloy80. III. COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN OF HIGHFREQUENCY INDUCTORS A transformer generally approaches optimum efficiency for a given volume, if its copper losses are equal to the core losses. The same rule applies for maximizing the Q-factor in an inductor. The Q-factor of an inductor is the tangent of the

I. INTRODUCTION A considerable effort has been directed towards highfrequency inductor and transformer design [1,2,3,4,5,6]. The minimum loss design of a 100 kHz inductor with foil windings and Ferrite core has been performed by A.Nysveen and M.Hernes [1]. In this paper, the minimum loss design of a 100 kHz inductor with litz wire and Permalloy80 (Cut-C core) is presented. In high-frequency inductors, winding losses are normally kept under control by using foil conductors or multi-strand litz wire. When such conductors are properly designed, additional losses defined as skin effect and proximity effect (eddy currents) can be kept at very low values. Both foil conductors and litz wire have their advantages and draw backs. Litz wire is fairly easy to wind up and terminate and is adaptable to various window geometries; on the other hand, litz wire is expensive and gives a poor fill factor (area of the bare conductor to the area of the wire). Foil conductors are fairly easy to produce in a variety of heights and weights, and if optimum foil height for a given number of turns is used, the winding becomes compact an has a potential for low losses. However, the optimal foil winding tends to become very wide where high current, high frequency and a large number of turns are presented at the same time. The additional winding losses are induced by the fringing flux near air-gaps. Fringe field causes eddy currents in the foil winding when trying to penetrate the winding. A quasi-distributed air-gap, built by a high number of small

TABLE 1 CORE MATERIAL PROPERTIES Permalloy80 Metglas2605SC 0.75 1.5 30000 50000 0.57 1.35 Toroids,Cut C-cores Toroids,Cut C-cores 4. Calculation of the area product: A p = Wa Ac cm2 phase angle between its voltage and current. At very high Ac = Core cross section (cm2) frequencies, the inductive reactance is very high and the effect of winding resistance (Rs) is very small. The inductor 5. Calculation of the initial utilization factor: K u = s1 s2 s3 = 0.25 Q-factor is maximized at a frequency that the core losses are equal to the copper losses [2]. Acu s1 = = 0.55 Acu + Ains A computer program was developed to design an inductor Acu = Copper area (cm2) based on area product (Ap) approach [3]. The program selects one core material from the data base (48 cores from Ains = Insulation area (cm2) the Magnetics Cut-Cores catalogue) at a time and implements s2 = Fill factor = 0.6 the design steps for all the wires (31 litz wires from the New s3 = Usable window area / Window area = 0.75 England Electric Wire catalogue). Those core materials and 6. Calculation of the maximum operating flux density: wires that can satisfy the condition, Pcu Pfe (within 10% 2 Eng 1e4 tolerance), will be selected by the program. The flow chart of Bm = .862 (T) Ap K u K j the design procedure is shown in figure 1. K j = Thermal coefficient = 486 at T = 50 oc IV. DESIGN STEPS The design specifications for the inductor are shown in Table 2. TABLE 2 SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE INDUCTOR Inductance ( L ) Current ( I ) Frequency ( f ) 10 H 75 Arms 100 kHz K u = 0.25 7. Calculation of the current density: J = K j ( A p ) .14 (A/cm2) 8. Calculation of the number of turns: V 1e4 N= 4.44 Bm f Ac 9. Calculation of the air-gap length: N 2 Ac 1e 2 (cm) lg = o L o = 4 1e 7 10. Calculation of the fringe flux effect coefficient: lg 2G FFC = 1 + log( ) lg ( Ac ).5 11. Recalculation of the number of turns: lg L N =( ).5 o Ac FFC 1e 2 12. Recalculation of the operating flux density: 2 o N I 1e2 Bac = (T) lg 13. Calculation of the core losses: Pfe = ( f ) .841 ( Bac 1e4 )1.866 We (W) Core type Bm (T) -m Shape Ferrite (P) 0.5 2500 5.0 E, I, U, Toroids

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7) (8)

(9)

The design steps of the computer program are as follows: 1. Calculation of the inductor voltage: V = 2f L I (V) 2. Calculation of the energy: 1 Eng = L I 2 (W.s) 2 3. Calculation of the window area: Wa = G F (cm2) G = Inner core height (cm) F = Inner core width (cm)

(10)

(1) (2) (3)

(11)

(12)

(13)

We = Core weight (lb.) 14. Calculation of the mean length of each turn:

MLT = 2 [ E + D + 4 ( OD + Bobbin )] (cm) E = Core leg width (cm) D = Core leg thickness (cm) OD = Wire output diameter (cm) Bobbin = Bobbin thickness (cm) 15. Calculation of the litz wire ac-resistance: ID f .5 4 Gs = ( ) 10.44 NSTRD ID 2 R Fs = ac = H + 2 ( ) Gs OD Rdc Gs = Eddy current basis factor R H = Single strand ac = 1 Rdc ID = Diameter of the individual strands over copper (cm) NSTRD = Number of strands Rac = Fs Rdc N MLT ( 3.28e 5 ) () 16. Calculation of the winding losses: Pcu = Rac I 2 (W) 17. Check if:

(14)

Core Data

Wire Data

(15) (16)
Select another core size

Determine: 1. window area (W a) 2. core cross section (A c) 3. operating flux density (B m) 4. number of turns (N) 5. air-gap length (lg) 6. new operating flux density (B 7. core losses (P fe) 8. Litz wire ac-resistance (R ac) 9. winding losses (P cu) 10. window utilization factor (K

op)

No, select another wire size

u)

P cu=P fe Yes Store the results

(17) (18)

Pcu Pfe

(within 10% tolerance)

End

18. Calculation of the number of layers: N OD M= G M arg in M arg in = Distance between the winding and the top core leg (yoke) (cm) 19. Calculation of the window utilization factor: W K u = total Wa

Figure 1. Design procedure flow chart (19) V. FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS A finite element package FLUX2D [7] was used to evaluate the accuracy of the inductor analytical design. FLUX2D has the ability to calculate magnetic field and eddy current losses by solving the vector potential equation, r r 1 r r r ( j )A + rot [ rot ( A)] = J (23) o r The boundary condition was set to Dirichlet condition r with a zero value of vector potential ( A = 0 ) along the boundary line. The selected cross section of the inductor geometry used in the finite element analysis is shown in figure 2. The materials used in the bobbin and insulation between layers are nonmagnetic. Therefore, they were modeled as air (r = 1). VI. MAGNETO-THERMAL ANALYSIS Core losses and winding losses determine the thermal losses. High losses due to high frequency operation will result in very high temperature that can exceed the safe operating temperature for the inductor. Therefore, for safe operation, the thermal analysis should be performed to determine the operating temperature for the resulting losses.

(20)

Wtotal = Winding area + Bobbin area = Wh Ww (cm2) Wh = Winding height = G 2 M arg in (cm) Ww = Winding width = M OD + Bobbin (cm) 20. Calculation of the total inductor losses: Ptotal = Pcu + Pfe (W) (21) 21. Calculation of the inductor Q-factor: X L RP Q= (22) RP Rac + X L 2 lc RP = Core resistance = () Ac 1e 2 = Core resistivity = 0.57 (.m) () X L = Inductor reactance = 2 f L lc = Magnetic path length (cm) 22. Select another core and repeat steps 1-21.

FLUX2D has the ability to compute the temperature gradient of an inductor using magneto-thermal analysis. In thermal analysis of an inductor, hysteresis, eddy currents and winding current are considered as heat sources. There are two ways of heat transfer between the inductor and its surroundings: 1. Convection heat transfer: The convection heat transfer occurs between a fluid in motion and a bounding surface when the two are at different temperatures. q = h (Ts T ) (W/m2) (24) q = Convective heat flux h = Convection heat transfer coefficient Ts = Surface temperature (oc) T = Fluid temperature (oc) 2. Radiation heat transfer: The thermal radiation is energy emitted by matter that is at a finite temperature. The energy of the radiation field is transported by electromagnetic waves. q = Ts 4 (W/m2) (25) q = Radiative heat flux from the surface = Emissivity of the surface = Boltzmann constant Ts = Absolute temperature of the surface (oc)

TABLE 3 LITZ WOUND CUT-C CORE (1MIL-PERMALLOY80) INDUCTOR WITH AIR-GAP Core # Winding losses (W) Core losses (W) Operating flux density (T) Core cross section (cm2) Core weight (g) Core volume (cm3) Window area (cm2) Window utilization factor Air-gap length (mm) Number of turns Number of layers Ac-resistance (m) Q-factor Current density (A/cm2) Wire AWG # Wire diameter (mm) Wire bare area (cm2) No. of strands 13 26.6 24.7 .15 1.935 408.2 44.24 14.52 .345 10.72 13 1 4.7 100 293 38 4.8 .095 1050

VIII. FINITE ELEMENT RESULTS The finite element analysis results of the candidate inductor are presented in Table 4. They clearly show that the results of the analytical inductor design (area product approach) are in good agreement with the finite element results except in core losses. The eddy current losses can not be calculated in the analytical design, but at high frequencies they can not be neglected. The finite element results show that core losses (Hysteresis and eddy current losses) are considerably larger than winding losses. Therefore, this inductor is not a minimum loss design. The equi-flux lines of the candidate inductor are shown in figure2.

VII. RESULTS OF THE ANALYTICAL DESIGN The numerical results of the analytical design for one of the selected cores by the program (core no. 13) are shown in Table 3. It can be seen from the results that core losses and winding losses are close together. Therefore, the Q-factor of this inductor is nearly maximum (100). At high frequencies, litz wire can improve the Q-factor of the gapped inductor considerably. The diameter of the litz wire is about 40% greater than solid wire of the same cross sectional conductor area because of its complex twisted structure and the presence of a large amount internal insulation. The results show that the window utilization factor is relatively low (0.345) which is the penalty for using litz wire.

XI. ITERATIVE DESIGN STEPS The iterative design steps are as follows: Step 1. Select all the cores and wires such that, Pcu Pfe . When this condition is satisfied, the inductor Q-factor will be maximized. Step 2. Do the finite element analysis for the candidate inductor designed in step 1. Step 3. Increase the number of turns to reduce the operating flux density and consequently the core losses. Step 4. Increase the air-gap length to reduce the inductance to the desired value.

Step 5. Change the single big air-gap to small distributed air- gaps to reduce the fringe fields in the winding area. Step 6. Do the magneto-thermal analysis for the minimum loss inductor.

TABLE 4 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS RESULTS OF THE CANDIDATE INDUCTOR Design # Number of air-gaps Length of air-gaps (mm) Number of turns Winding resistance (m) Current (Arms) Inductance (H) Operating flux density (T) Winding losses (W) Core losses (W) Current density (A/cm2) Eddy current (Arms) 1 1 10.7 13 4.7 73 10.9 0.32 25 61 308 2.45

Figure 2. Equi-flux lines of the candidate inductor

For a given core size and frequency, core losses are proportional to the operating flux density [2]. As the flux density is reduced by increasing the number of turns, core losses decrease. The increment of the number of turns will increase the amount of inductance which is not desirable. N 2 Ac (26) L= o lg It can be seen from equation (26) that the inductance can be reduced to its desired value by increasing the air-gap length. As it was mentioned earlier, the problem with big single air-gap is high magnetic fringe field in the winding area. This problem can be solved by using many small airgaps instead of one big air-gap. It is important that there be a certain distance between air-gaps when there are many of them in one core leg. Otherwise, the air-gaps will be short circuited and also the manufacturing cost will be increased. It is recommended that the distance between the two air-gaps be greater than four times of one air-gap length [1]. In the second design, the number of turns was increased to 16 and the air-gap length to 17.8 mm. The finite element analysis results are shown in column 2 of Table 5. It can be seen from the results that the core losses (Hysteresis and eddy current losses) have been reduced from 61 watts to 40.8 watts which is considerable.

In the third design, the number of turns was increased to 20 and the single big air-gap (17.8 mm) was changed to five small distributed air-gaps (3.56 mm each). The finite element analysis results are shown in column 3 of Table 5. They show that the core losses are reduced to 19.7 watts and all design specifications are also met. This design can be considered as a minimum loss design for this core size. If we wanted to increase the number of air-gaps more than five, the manufacturing costs would be much higher. The inductor geometry and equi-flux lines of design no. 3 (minimum loss design) are shown in figure 3. The temperature gradient of design no. 3 is shown in figure 4. It can be seen from the graph that the temperature is maximum between the winding and the core leg (82.5oc). X. CONCLUSION In this paper, an iterative design procedure to design minimum loss high-frequency inductors with litz wire is presented. The finite element analysis method is used to minimize the inductor core losses (Hysteresis and eddy current losses). A 10 H, 75 Arms inductor with 100 kHz operating frequency is designed through the developed iterative design procedure. It is shown that the core losses can be reduced considerably by increasing the number of turns and using small distributed air-gaps as shown in Table 5.

TABLE 5 FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS RESULTS OF DIFFERENT DESIGNS Design # Number of air-gaps Length of air-gaps (mm) Number of turns Winding resistance (m) Current (Arms) Inductance (H) Operating flux density (T) Winding losses (W) Core losses (W) Current density (A/cm ) Eddy current (Arms)
2

1 1 10.7 13 4.7 73 10.9 0.32 25 61 308 2.45

2 1 17.8 16 5.8 73.6 11.2 0.27 31.4 40.8 382 1.95

3 5 3.56 20 7.2 71.3 10.44 0.18 36.6 19.7 300 1.37

Figure 3. Equi-flux lines of design no. 3

Figure 4. Temperature gradient of design no. 3

ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was supported by the Liebert Co., Columbus, OH. The use of FLUX2D software from the MAGSOFT Co. is gratefully acknowledged.

REFERENCES [1] N. Nysveen, M. Hernes, Minimum Loss Design of a 100 kHz Inductor with Foil Windings, EPE Conference Proceedings 1993, pp. 106-111. [2] Donald E. Pauly, Selecting Transformer/Inductor Core Material, Power Supply Magnetics, January 1996, pp. 23-35. [3] W. T. McLyman, Transformer and Inductor Design Handbook, New York: Mercel Dekker, 1988. [4] M. A. Preston, R. W. De Doncker, R. C. Oney, C. M. Stephens, High-Current High-Frequency Inductors for Resonant Converters, EPE Conference Proceedings 1991, pp. 242-246. [5] W. A. Roshen, R. L. Steigerwald, R. J. Charles, W. G. Earls, G. S. Claydon, C. F. Saj, High-Efficiency, HighDensity MHz Magnetic Components for low Profile Converters, IEEE Trans. Industry Applications, vol. 31, no. 4, July 1995, pp. 869-877. [6] M. S. Rauls, D. W. Novotny, D. M. Divan, Design Considerations for High Frequency Co-Axial Winding Power Transformers, Research Report, WEMPEC, June 1991. [7] FLUX2D user manual, MAGSOFT Co., Nov. 1994.