There is an increasing demand for miniaturizing magnetic components such as inductors and transformers in power converters. This demand is driven by the decreasing size of electronic products and by the potential savings which might be achieved by integrating such components on integrated circuits. Magnetic components are typically the largest components by size and dissipate the most energy. Increasing the frequency at which converters operate can decrease the size of these components and increase their power handling capacity per unit area. However conventional soft magnetic materials are not optimized for operation at high frequencies where they exhibit undesirable characteristics such as high core loss. The primary goal of the research is to design and synthesize novel multi-layered nano-granular soft magnetic materials that can be used for high-frequency switched mode power converters. Properly characterizing the losses in the magnetic material from the context of it being used as a magnetic core is paramount in understanding the next steps needed to improve the material and the potential application in devices. Furthermore, to enable development of on-chip power converters, the synthesis methodology must be compatible with CMOS processes. In this thesis, several soft magnetic materials were synthesized using reactive sputtering. The synthesis process was thoroughly documented to ensure that the process can be easily repeated. A framework is also detailed that can be used for the thorough analysis of losses in a magnetic core and the framework is utilized to analyze the magnetic materials design. Two materials which are heavily emphasized in my work are Co-Zr-O and Ni-Fe-Zr-O. The basic characteristics of Co-Zr-O have been investigated in prior work and my work provides more detailed information on its performance under different operating and synthesis conditions. Ni-Fe-Zr-O is a newly designed granular material and its magnetic and loss characteristics are presented. After characterizing suitable materials, thick films were prepared as cores for inductors. Results of the performance of thick films are also presented.

Magnetic Components for Power Electronics concerns the important considerations necessary in the choice of the optimum magnetic component for power electronic applications. These include the topology of the converter circuit, the core material, shape, size and others such as cost and potential component suppliers. These are all important for the design engineer due to the emergence of new materials, changes in supplier management and the examples of several component choices. Suppliers using this volume will also understand the needs of designers. Highlights include: Emphasis on recently introduced new ferrite materials, such as those operating at megahertz frequencies and under higher DC drive conditions; Discussion of amorphous and nanocrystalline metal materials; New technologies such as resonance converters, power factors correction (PFC) and soft switching; Catalog information from over 40 magnetic component suppliers; Examples of methods of component choice for ferrites, amorphous nanocrystalline materials; Information on suppliers management changes such as those occurring at Siemens, Philips, Thomson and Allied-Signal; Attention to the increasingly important concerns about EMI. This book should be especially helpful for power electronic circuit designers, technical executives, and material science engineers involved with power electronic components.

If you are looking for a complete study of the fundamental concepts in magnetic theory, read this book. No other textbook covers magnetic components of inductors and transformers for high-frequency applications in detail. This unique text examines design techniques of the major types of inductors and transformers used for a wide variety of high-frequency applications including switching-mode power supplies (SMPS) and resonant circuits. It describes skin effect and proximity effect in detail to provide you with a sound understanding of high-frequency phenomena. As well as this, you will discover thorough coverage on: integrated inductors and the self-capacitance of inductors and transformers, with expressions for self-capacitances in magnetic components; criteria for selecting the core material, as well as core shape and size, and an evaluation of soft ferromagnetic materials used for magnetic cores; winding resistance at high frequencies; expressions for winding and core power losses when non-sinusoidal inductor or transformer current waveforms contain harmonics. Case studies, practical design examples and procedures (using the area product method and the geometry coefficient method) are expertly combined with concept-orientated explanations and student-friendly analysis. Supplied at the end of each chapter are summaries of the key concepts, review questions, and problems, the answers to which are available in a separate solutions manual. Such features make this a fantastic textbook for graduates, senior level undergraduates and professors in the area of power electronics in addition to electrical and computer engineering. This is also an inimitable reference guide for design engineers of power electronics circuits, high-frequency transformers and inductors in areas such as (SMPS) and RF power amplifiers and circuits.

Soft magnetic materials are widely used in devices such as inductors, transformers, antennas, magnetic hard drives, etc. Some of those devices will benefit greatly from operating at high frequencies. Thus fundamental study on finding the materials that have better soft magnetic properties is essential for improving the performance of those devices. Fe alloys have been proved to be promising candidates for high frequency applications. In this dissertation, an extensive study of magnetic properties of FeAl, (FeCo)-Al and (FeCo)-Si alloy thin films and their dependence on the film thickness and growth temperature has been presented. These films have body-centered cubic structure and columnar growth morphology. It is shown that the thickness of the film, which has an influence on the stress inside the film, may affect the coercivity through the magnetic-elastic coupling. The same mechanism is observed in the growth temperature dependence study, where reduced stress caused by increased growth temperature leads to a decrease in coercivity. The effective damping parameter shows a huge increase at small thickness due to the spin pumping effect. In-plane rotation ferromagnetic resonance measurements unveil the existence of four-fold anisotropy in (FeCo)-Si films. In addition, a four-fold symmetry is observed in the FMR linewidth vs. in-plane angle plot, which indicates anisotropic damping caused by the two-magnon scattering contribution. The film thickness dependence of FMR linewidth caused by the two-magnon scattering suggests that the origin of the two-magnon scattering is not pure interfacial.

This book provides comprehensive coverage of the current state-of-the-art in soft magnetic materials and related applications, with particular focus on amorphous and nanocrystalline magnetic wires and ribbons and sensor applications. Expert chapters cover preparation, processing, tuning of magnetic properties, modeling, and applications. Cost-effective soft magnetic materials are required in a range of industrial sectors, such as magnetic sensors and actuators, microelectronics, cell phones, security, automobiles, medicine, health monitoring, aerospace, informatics, and electrical engineering. This book presents both fundamentals and applications to enable academic and industry researchers to pursue further developments of these key materials. This highly interdisciplinary volume represents essential reading for researchers in materials science, magnetism, electrodynamics, and modeling who are interested in working with soft magnets.