Design on SMPS Transformer

(Myths and Misconceptions)

 Common myths about high frequency
transformer and inductor
• Magnetics parts are frequently misunderstood,
and almost always made out to be much more
difficult than they really are.
• Good Magnetics design does NOT need a lot of
complex analysis.
• The problem is that there are so many variables
to deal with, and so many small details to know.
• Magnetics design is also greatly complicated by
the fact that there is so much misinformation out
there, in data books, papers, and elsewhere.
 Myth #1
• Fill the window with copper for an optimum
magnetics design
• Rarely will it be best to fill up the entire window
area available with copper. In many inductor and
transformer designs, it is not uncommon to find
that adding an extra layer of windings, using a
heavier gauge wire, will actually increase total
losses in the part due to the proximity effects in
the wire. Don't be concerned about leaving
space in the window, even if it's only 25% full.
• This myth is a hangover from line-frequency
magnetics design days.
 Myth #2
• Core loss = copper loss for an optimum
transformer design

• It's not unusual to have core loss and copper

loss differ by an order of magnitude in some
designs. this doesn't mean that the design is
bad.
• There are a lot more parameters which define
optimum design.
• In a high-frequency switching transformer, and
making the core and copper loss equal is usually
the least of the concerns.
 Myth #2
• This myth is a result of looking at
designs which are fairly homogenous
from a thermal standpoint - such as in
50 Hz designs. It certainly doesn't
apply to cases with a few thin layers
of exposed wire such as we often
have in high frequency designs.
•
 Myth #3
• Leakage inductance should be about 1% of
magnetizing inductance
• Calculate the expected leakage, measure it in
the finished transformer, then do everything you
can to make it as low as possible without making
other critical parameters of the transformer
much worse (e.g. capacitance). In some cases,
leakage will be less than 0.1% of the
magnetizing inductance. In some cases, with a
gapped core, it may be close to 10%.
 Myth #3
• And never, never, use this criteria as a
specification to the magnetics vendor. You
should specify leakage as an absolute
number, plus or minus a percentage,
typically about 20%.
 Myth #4
• Leakage inductance is a function of the
core permeability
• Some people think that adding a core to a
transformer winding will couple the
windings closer together, reducing the
leakage between them. Others have heard
that the core will couple with the fields
between the windings, dramatically
increasing the leakage.
 Myth #4
• The fact is that the leakage inductance of two
concentric windings designed for a modern
switching power supply transformer is almost
independent of whether the core is present or
not.
• This is a surprising fact - adding a material with
a permeability of several thousand close to the
windings has very little effect on the leakage
inductance, changing it by no more than perhaps
10%.
 Myth #5
• An optimum transformer winding has a
current density of 500 - 750 circular mils per
amp
• What matters is how much dissipation is in the
wire, and whether there is sufficient cooling to
keep its temperature in the acceptable range.
Given the extreme types of cooling which may
be used in power supplies, ranging from liquid
immersion at one extreme, to operation in the
vacuum of space at another, the appropriate
current density in the wire will vary widely.
 Myth #5
• After designing practical transformers
many transformer houses do not bother
about the current density. The only
relevant question is: how hot is it?
• This myth results from an artificial
constraint placed on transformer design to
try and simplify and reduce the number of
variables available.
 Myth #6:
• Primary loss = secondary loss in an optimum
transformer
The losses might be similar in some cases, but
don't worry if one is much lower than the other.
Again, the only thing that matters is how hot the
windings get with your type of cooling. Other
parameters which are important to us will
determine how balanced the losses in the
windings are.
 Myth #7
• If the wire diameter is less than the skin
depth, there are no significant high-
frequency losses
• A very misleading and dangerous assumption. If
you have a lot of layers in a winding, you can
have very large proximity losses even with very
small wire gauges, well below the skin depth in
diameter.
 Myth #8
• The open-circuit resonance of a forward transformer
should be much higher than the switching frequency
• It's a surprising fact that the open circuit resonance is
irrelevant, it doesn't even matter if it is less than the
switching frequency!
How do you know this is true? The ideal core would have
an infinite inductance, and with a small but finite winding
capacitance, the resonant frequency would then be zero!
• What is important is the short-circuit resonance. This
should be at least two orders of magnitude higher than
the switching frequency, if possible.