S08 - Magnetic Scaling and Constraints

The design of power magnetics encompasses a dizzying range of frequencies, power levels, impedances, materials, and physical constraints. It would be useful to have a sense of how magnetic performance scales across this vast landscape and which constraints matter most. Nevertheless, while engineers may understand magnetics design, they generally learn how to handle wildly different application areas only by experience. In this seminar, we will review fundamental physical laws for magnetic components and learn how those laws inform design across both size and frequency. Attendees will learn how much permeability is necessary, whether saturation or core loss limits a design, and when air-core magnetics should be used. They will also learn why it’s so hard to make magnetics small, situations where magnetics scale more favorably, and whether one big component is better than many small components. We will not focus on detailed design decisions; rather, we will emphasize broad, coarse conclusions that will help attendees ask the right questions before starting a design and give them some intuition for what the right answers will be. This seminar is suitable for all attendees with introductory classroom exposure to magnetic component design.