Soft Magnetic Alloy–Polymer Composite for High-Frequency Power Electronics Application

Soft magnetic alloys are limited to lower frequencies because of increased eddy-current losses at higher frequencies. A simple low-temperature solvent-based process was developed to coat permalloy powder with a benzocyclobutene insulating layer to reduce interparticle eddy-current loss. Low-signal measurements show that the permeability of the cured composite exhibits a bandwidth beyond 10 MHz. In contrast, the permeability of the pure powder rolled off well below 1 MHz with a corresponding increase in the imaginary permeability. Measurements of the core loss density at 5 MHz on pressed composite cores show a core loss of 300 mW/cm3 at more than 90 gauss, while the pure powder core achieved the same core loss density at just over 10 gauss. The results demonstrate that the polymer coating process is an effective way of reducing the interparticle eddy-current loss in powdered magnetic cores at high frequencies.