Preparation of the Fe-based glassy alloy powder cores and their applications

New core (Liqualloy™ core) made of soft magnetic Fe-based glassy alloy powder was fabricated by the consolidation using an uni-axial mechanical press at room temperature. This new core has the constant relative permeability (μ′) of about 60 up to 1 MHz and extremely low core loss blow 200kW/m3 at f= 100 kHz and Bm=0.1 T. The efficiency of the switching power supply (η) was improved by 2-3% when the Liqualloy™ core was used instead of Fe-Al-Si core. The temperature rise near the Liqualloy™ core (ΔT) was also 10 K lower than that of the Fe-Al-Si core. These excellent properties of the Liqualloy™ core are based on its extremely low hysteresis and eddy current losses. These low losses are originated from its good soft magnetic properties (Hc = 2 A/m) after annealing at relatively low temperature, its intrinsic hardness (Hv = 1000) and high resistivitiy (ρ = 160 μΩcm).