Focus on Magnetics

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ISSUE: April 2016

Sizing Your Power Converters Magnetics (Part 1): Inductor Power Rating With
Fixed Input Voltage
by Dennis Feucht, Innovatia Laboratories, Cayo, Belize
When designing inductors and transformers for PWM-based power converters, engineers may rely on published
formulas or design tools provided for a specific topology when determining the power rating of the power
magnetic component. Or they may run simulations to determine the amount of power handled by the powertransferring inductor or transformer. However, a more analytical approach gives designers greater insight when
the objective is optimizing the magnetics design for size, efficiency, cost or other goals.
The methods of analysis described in this series are applicable to inductors and transformers for the three PWMswitch configurations and their derivatives such as the uk converter. The method determines which one of
three PWM switch configurations is used in the configuration of choice and then applies the design formulas that
are derived in this three-part article series. With this method, the rating of the inductor or transformer can be
determined at the start of the inductor design, rather than after the fact. This gives designers a powerful tool
for evaluating which topology offers the edge in terms of magnetic component size.
Here in part 1, I derive the design formulas for determining the power rating of the power transfer inductor
used in each of the three PWM switch configurations. These formulas apply specifically to circuits where the
input voltage is fixed. In part 2, the analysis is extended for the cases where the input voltage varies over a
range. Finally, in part 3, the analysis is extended to transformer-based power converters and formulas are
derived for determining power ratings for these transformers.

PWM Switch Configurations

The PWM-switch is a three-terminal device, shown in Fig. 1, the central feature of many converter circuits.

Fig. 1. As a three-terminal device, the PWM switch can be connected in one of three
configurations denoted by which terminal is shared by input and output. Most power converter
topologies can be classified in one of three configurations, proving the basis for a method of
determining inductor size across different topologies.

As a three-terminal active device like a transistor, it has three two-port configurations:

common active (CA) or boost

common passive (CP) or buck

common inductor (CL) or boost-buck.

The two ports are input and output port and the ports share a common terminal which identifies the
configuration.
Some PWM-switch converters are not so easy to associate with one of the three configurations because they
use circuit-isolating transformers. Some of these configurations are boost push-pull (transformer-coupled,
center-tapped primary CA), forward (transformer-coupled CP), and flyback (common coupled-inductor, CL)
converters.
uk-derived converters are CL converters with current steering. If in doubt, the converter configuration can be
identified by its transfer function. The passive switch is typically implemented by a diode and the active switch
by a transistor.

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CA Converter
The common-active (CA) or boost configuration is shown in Fig. 2.

+
+

Vo

Vg
-

Fig. 2. The common-active (CA) or boost configuration.

In this configuration, the active switchthe MOSFETis the element common to both input and output ports.
During the on-time, inductor current only flows in the input circuit, through the MOSFET. During off-time,
current flows from input to output. Applying the flux-balance condition over a switching cycle of period Ts and
for Vg < Vo,

VgDTs = (Vg Vo)(1 D)Ts .

The lossless transfer function follows as

Vo
1
1

.
Vg 1 D D'

It also equals, from conservation of power, M = Ig/Io, where Ig and Io are the on- or off-time amplitudes of
current.
The average input power is constant;

Pg Vg I g Vg I L D' Vo I L .
The inductor power during on-time is the negative of that during off-time. During on-time, the inductor sinks
(stores) power and during off-time, it sources a cycle-averaged power of a magnitude

PL D Vg I g D'(Vo Vg ) I g D' 1 Vg I g (1 D' ) Vg I g D Vg I L D Pg .

D'
Thus, the fraction of input power transferred by the inductor is

PL
D
Pg

, CA

For a nominal operating-point at D = 0.5, the inductor power is half that of the converter power.

CP Converter
The common-passive (CP) or buck configuration is shown below in Fig. 3.

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+
+

Vo

Vg
-

Fig. 3. The common-passive (CP) or buck configuration.

During the on-time, the MOSFET is on, reverse-biasing the diode and applying Vg to the input side of the
inductor. For Vg > Vo, Vg Vo is applied across the inductor. During off-time, the inductor has Vo across it. For
steady-state converter operation, the change in flux during the on-time must equal that during the off-time, or

(Vg Vo)DTs = Vo(1 D)Ts .

The transfer function from this is

Vo I g

D.
Vg I o

The average input power is

Pg D Vg I g D Vg I L .
The stored cycle-average inductor power during the on-time is

PL D (Vg Vo ) I g D Vg (1 D) I g D D' Vg I g D' Pg .

Noting that IL = Ig = Io, the sourced cycle-average off-time inductor power is

PL D' Vo I L D' Vo I s D' ( D Vg ) I s D' ( D Vg I g ) D' Pg .

Then the fraction of inductor transfer power to converter input power is

PL
D'
Pg

, CP

Power Flows
The CA and CP configurations have on- or off-time PL =

PL Pg because for part of their switching cycle, the

input also supplies power to the output. Consequently, the inductor need not store the full transfer power
because some of it is transferred either during the on-time (CP) or off-time (CA). The power flows are per-cycle
energy flows which can be diagrammed as shown below.

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Fig. 4. In CA and CP configurations, the inductor does not store the full power flow because the
input is supplying power to the output during part of the switching cycle.

CL Converter
The third and final two-port configuration of the PWM-switch is the common-inductor (CL) or boost-buck
configuration, shown in Fig 5.

Vo

Vg
-

+
Fig. 5. Common-inductor (CL) or boost-buck configuration.

During the on-time, only the input circuit conducts current; during the off-time, only the output circuit conducts
inductor current. In this configuration as shown, the output voltage is inverted. The flux-balance equation is

VgDTs = Vo(1 D)Ts

and

Vo
D
D

.
Vg 1 D D '

Again, power conservation requires that M = Ig/Io. For the CL configuration, all transfer power is transferred to
the inductor during the on-time,

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Pg D Vg I g D Vg I L D'Vo I L D'Vo I o
and all inductor power is transferred during the off-time to the output;

PL D'Vo I L D'Vo I g D Vg I g Pg .
Thus the fraction of inductor to input power is simply

PL
1
Pg

, CL

For this configuration, the inductor must handle all of the input power. The uk-derived converters are no
exception, as CL converters. For uk converter power flows, the inductor and coupling capacitor recirculating
power equals the input power.

Summary
For CA (boost) converters, the inductor power is

PL = D Pg . At an operating-point of D = , PL = Pg /2 and

is maximum at maximum D. For CP (buck) converters,

PL = D Pg ; operating at D = , PL = Pg /2, and is

maximum at minimum D. But for CL (boost-buck, uk) converters,

PL = Pg and inductor power is not affected

by D.
The inductor power, as derived in this article from converter circuit considerations, relates to inductor design
through the magnetics transfer-power circuit-referred formula,

PL g I g f s ( D Vg ) I g
where circuit flux, g = Vg(D Ts) and Ig is the circuit (winding terminal) input current amplitude. When
referred by the primary winding turns, Np, to the field of the core, it is expressed instead in field quantities;

PL g I g f s ( N g ) I g f s g NI g f s
where g = core magnetic-field flux, and NIg = NIg = field-referred current of Ig, referred through Np.
Converter circuit and core magnetics thereby relate in power-electronics design, though it is necessary to first
determine the inductor power requirement from the converter circuit before the inductor can be designed.
An inductor that must operate over a range of Vg (and hence Ig) must be larger in power rating than for a fixed
Vg. How much larger? That question is addressed in the next part in this series.

About The Author

Dennis Feucht has been involved in power electronics for 30 years, designing motordrives and power converters. He has an instrument background from Tektronix, where
he designed test and measurement equipment and did research in Tek Labs. He has
lately been working on projects in theoretical magnetics and power converter research.

For more on magnetics design, see these How2Power Design Guide search results.
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