Imperial College London > Talks@ee.imperial > Control and Power Seminars > A Power-Loss-Dependent Inductance Model for Saturating Ferrite-Core Power Inductors in Switch-Mode Power Supplies

A Power-Loss-Dependent Inductance Model for Saturating Ferrite-Core Power Inductors in Switch-Mode Power Supplies

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The achievement of higher and higher power density levels is a main concern in Switch-Mode Power Supply (SMPS) design, especially in the aerospace and automotive domains, where weight and size are major constraints due to the current trend towards more electric vehicles, which require more power electronics on-board. Although integrated hardware solutions allow reducing the impact of power devices on SMP Ss weight and size, power magnetic components often remain the largest devices in high-frequency discrete power supplies, and their minimization is mandatory to step-up the power density of SMP Ss. Ferrite-Core (FC) inductors are extensively employed in SMP Ss, owing to their low cost and low power losses. Their inductance drops quite sharply as the current increases, because of magnetic core saturation. For this reason, in SMPS design FC inductors are generally selected to ensure that in the worst-case condition the peak current determines an inductance drop limited within about 20% of its nominal value. As a consequence, FC inductors are often oversized. Recent studies show that it is possible to use smaller FC inductors working with worst-case peak current falling in the region beyond 20% of inductance drop, by ensuring that they satisfy the overall design specifications. In this case, the inductors work in Sustainable Saturation Operation (SSO). A reliable SSO -based design requires the development of novel inductor models, which is the subject of this talk. A novel power-loss-dependent inductance behavioral model is described, whose parameters can be identified through a limited set of proper experimental measurements of inductor current and voltage. Unlike conventional thermal modeling approaches, which require information on core temperature, the proposed behavioral model relies only on easily measurable quantities. The model is also suitable for being implemented in circuit simulators.

Bio: Alberto Oliveri received the M.Sc. degree in electronic engineering and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Genoa (Italy), in 2009 and 2013, respectively. He is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Electrical, Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Genoa. His main research interests include modeling and compensation of nonlinear phenomena (in particular, rate-dependent hysteresis in sensors and actuators, magnetic saturation in power components) and circuit implementation of explicit exact and approximate model predictive control.

This talk is part of the Control and Power Seminars series.

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