Grain boundary engineering of low loss ferrite cores required for high efficiency power electronics components

The development of switch mode power supplies is constantly challenging the ferrite industry to produce new, high-quality ferrite cores capable of operating at increasingly higher frequencies and low loss. Furthermore, it is important to reduce the power losses of ferrite cores used in transformers in order to maximize output power and efficiency. This program"s technical objectives are to develop boundary engineered ferrite materials with high magnetic flux density (Bs>500 mT), high initial permeability (ur>500), low power loss (PL<300 mW/cm3 at 10mT and 100oC) in the frequency range of 0.5-7 MHz. Further, the development of compaction and thermal processing methods to produce ferrite cores while maintaining the boundary engineered structure is pursued. Optimized ferrite cores will be utilized to build planar transformers that can be used in future power electronics systems or retrofitted into existing ones. The proposed boundary engineered ferrite materials are expected to be far superior to those presently utilized to develop switched-mode power supplies, dc-to-dc converters, and other power electronics components. Increased operating frequency range, increased saturation magnetization, reduced core losses, and improved temperature stability are expected to produce a significant reduction in size, weight, cost, and power consumption of power systems.