Development of models and tool for the design of HF magnetic components in power electronics

Abstract

The magnetic components represent an important part of the power electronic converters in terms of volume and cost, particularly in switching power supplies. Therefore, it is essential to develop methods and software tools to optimize the magnetic device design in relation with the conversion parameters. To built a design process of magnetic components, it is necessary to identify the constraints induced by the specifications, to choose the electrical conductors and the magnetic cores, both in terms of materials and geometries, to calculate accurately the losses in these two parts and, finally to introduce thermal models in order to determine the temperature reached in the different parts. Indeed, the respect of correct operating temperatures must be the main constraint of any design process, particularly in power systems. In this paper, a generic design tool based on the approach mentioned above and mainly dedicated to high frequency power transformers is presented. For a large part, this tool uses analytical models, and in addition, some steps of the process are realized by mean of Finite Element simulations. Different experimental measurements have been made to verify the model validity, especially concerning thermal features magnetic and complete the content of the paper.