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mounts directly onto a printed circuit board by its leads.
Such devices offer high efficiency and mounting ease,
but at a somewhat higher cost than molded inductors.
Ferrite Cores (Pot Cores)
Pot cores are very popular as switch-mode power sup-
ply applications since they offer high performance and
ease of design. The coils are generally wound on a plas-
tic bobbin, which is then placed between two pot core
sections. A simple clip to hold the core sections together
completes the inductor. Smaller pot cores mount direct-
ly onto printed circuit boards via the bobbin terminals.
Cores come in a wide variety of sizes often with the cen-
ter posts ground down to provide an air gap. The gap
prevents saturation while accurately defining the induc-
tance per turn squared.
Pot cores are suitable for all DC-DC converters, but are
usually used in the higher power applications. They are
also useful for experimentation since it is easy to wind
coils onto the plastic bobbins.
Toroidal Cores
In volume production, the toroidal core offers high per-
formance, low size and weight, and low cost. They are,
however, slightly more difficult for prototyping, in that
manually winding turns onto a toroid is more tedious
than on the plastic bobbins used with pot cores. Toroids
are more efficient for a given size since the flux is more
evenly distributed than in a pot core, where the effective
core area differs between the post, side, top, and bot-
tom.
Since it is difficult to gap a toroid, manufacturers pro-
duce toroids using a mixture of ferromagnetic powder
(typically iron or Mo-Permalloy powder) and a binder.
The permeability is controlled by varying the amount of
binder, which changes the effective gap between the
ferromagnetic particles. Mo-Permally powder (MFP)
cores have lower losses and are recommended for the
highest efficiency, while iron powder cores are lower
cost.
COIL AND CORE MANUFACTURERS
Table 1
TYPE
TYPICAL
MANUFACTURER
PART #
DESCRIPTION
Molded
”
”
”
”
Dale
Cadell-Burns
Gowanda
Nytronics
TRW
1HA-104
7070-29
1B253
WEE-470
LL-500
500
μ
H, 0.5 ohms
220
μ
H, 0.55 ohms
250
μ
H, 0.44 ohms
470
μ
H, 10 ohms
500
μ
H, 0.75 ohms
Potted Toroidal
”
”
”
Dale
Gowanda
TRW
Torotel Prod.
TE-3Q4TA
050AT1003
MH-1
PT 53-18
1 mH, 0.82 ohms
100
μ
H, 0.05 ohms
600
μ
H, 1.9 ohms
500 uH, 5 ohms
Toroidal Core
Allen Bradley
T0451S100A
500 nH/T
2
”
Siemans
B64290-K38-X38
4
μ
H/T
2
”
Magnetics
555130
53 nH/T
2
Ferrite Core
”
Stackpole
Magnetics
57-3215
G-41408-25
14 mm x 8 mm
14 x 8, 250 nH/T
2
Note:
This list does not constitute an endorsement by Dallas Semiconductor and is not intended to be a
comprehensive list of all manufacturers of these components.