1.2mm High Wire-Wound Power Inductors

2nd March 2007

Taiyo Yuden

ES Admin

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TAIYO YUDEN has announced the immediate availability of its new BRL2518 series of wire-wound power inductors. Measuring just 2.5mm x 1.8mm with a 1.2mm maximum height, the five models (see table below) in the BRL2518 series offer an excellent combination of low DC resistance (0.08 to 0.4Ohms), high inductance (1.0 to 4.7µH) and high current ratings (1.6 to 0.7A). With the equivalent performance of larger devices, the 50% smaller footprint of the BRL2518 series facilitates more compact DC-DC converters and thinner-profile product designs. Now being produced at the rate of 10 million units per month, BRL2518 series wire-wound power inductors are ideally suited for DC-DC converter choke coil applications in hard disk drives, LCD displays, digital cameras, personal digital assistants and other devices.

The continuing miniaturization trend in portable equipment requires more compact, high-efficiency DC-DC converters to maximize battery power that has been stretched to the limit by added device functionality. Designing smaller DC-DC converters hinges on reducing the size of the choke coil, its main and largest component. However, reducing the size of the wire-wound inductor (functioning as a choke coil to prevent or limit AC while allowing DC to flow) increases resistance and reduces the efficiency of the DC-DC converter. For this reason, it is very difficult to reduce the size of an inductor while maintaining the lower-resistance characteristics of larger components.

TAIYO YUDEN responded to this design challenge by improving the round drum/sleeve core technology used by conventional inductor designs. The company developed a unique sleeveless square-core winding that successfully eliminated all wasted space and thickened the lead wire inside the inductor to achieve the lowest possible DC resistance. As a result, the company was able to develop a compact, high-efficiency choke coil for DC-DC converter applications that offered a 50 percent reduction in surface area compared to conventional inductors, while at the same time providing a minimal level of DC resistance (RDC).