Winners of Magnetic Components Design Challenge

Those involved had eight weeks to complete their experiments, after which they were assessed by judges on the quality of their written blogs and by demonstrating what they had learned about magnetic components.

“Magnetic components are as relevant today as when they were first engineered hundreds of years ago, but today’s generation of magnetics are finely engineered devices that are utilized in advanced applications, spanning from power conversion, filters, oscillators and circuit isolation to name just a few,” said Dianne Kibbey, Global Head of Community and Social Media for element14. “We’re proud to have partnered with Bourns to give our members the chance to investigate what magnetic components can do and share their insights with the broader community.”

From the nine contributors in the Experimenting with Magnetic Components Design Challenge, the element14 Community team of judges selected one Grand Prize winner and one Runner-Up:

• Grand Prize – Jan Cumps, Belgium – Cumps used the components from the Bourns magnetic kit to conduct experiments with boost converters, LCR meter experiments, common mode choke experiments, converter efficiency, planar PCB transformers plus measuring an unknown inductor value with a function generator and oscilloscope. For his outstanding achievements, he received a Dell 15.6" Gaming Laptop Computer as his grand prize.
• Runner-Up – Enrique Albertos, Spain – Albertos conducted experiments for his smart coin sorter project using inductive sensing. Through a series of blog posts, he walked through everything from basic magnetics to how coins change coil impedance to experiments with oscillators and finally to inductive sensor devices. His blogs included spanned inductive sensing, how coins change coil impedance, experimenting with BJT C-B colpitts oscillators and experimenting with Op Amp colpitts oscillators. After being named as runner-up, Albertos received a Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and a $100 shopping cart from Farnell as his prizes.

The remaining seven participants received a Handheld Digital Multimeter as a finisher prize.

Magnetics are an important component of most electronic circuits and are typically used for energy storage, filtering, step-up/step-down transformation and pulse transfer, among others.

The Experimenting with Magnetic Components Design Challenge is part of a series of design challenges from elemen14 that provide individual components to the challengers for testing and experimentation, generating compelling content about individual components that enhance product knowledge and offer a unique learning experience for the element14 Community.