Coilcraft | PartQuest™ Explore

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Member of the PartQuest Explore Development Team. Focused on modeling and simulation of analog, mixed-signal and multi-discipline systems covering a broad range of applications, including power electronics, controls and mechatronic systems.

Description

This design shows the importance of choosing the right inductor size and type, to avoid saturation-induced current spikes during operating transients. In this case, the start-up transient in two nearly identical open-loop buck power stages (12V -&gt; 3V) is examined. The only difference is that the top circuit is using an inductor calibrated to a Coilcraft XAL6060-223 (22uH), which has "soft saturation" behavior. The bottom circuit is using a similarly sized inductor, but with a more typical "hard saturation" characteristic.

Both inductors work well for the steady-state load condition of 3 Amp. But during the turn-on transient, that current can go significantly above that nominal level. At that time, the instantaneous inductance of the hard-saturating device collapses, resulting in even larger current spikes in each switching interval. Note in the waveforms on the left: The soft-saturation inductance drops to 14uH minimum during the transient, whereas the hard-saturation inductance crashes to near 2uH, or only 10% of its nominal value!

Test Duncan McCance s-parameter model

Designer19

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11 years 7 months

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Member of the PartQuest Explore Development Team. Focused on modeling and simulation of analog, mixed-signal and multi-discipline systems covering a broad range of applications, including power electronics, controls and mechatronic systems.

Copy of Compare Soft Saturation vs. Regular Inductor - Switching forETQP4M220KVC - on Thu, 04/10/2025 - 07:51

Designer241497

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3 years 9 months

154

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I'm a member of the PartQuest Explore Promoto.

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Copy of Compare Soft Saturation vs. Regular Inductor - Switching forETQP4M220KVC - on Fri, 02/28/2025 - 12:26

Designer19

Member for

11 years 7 months

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Member of the PartQuest Explore Development Team. Focused on modeling and simulation of analog, mixed-signal and multi-discipline systems covering a broad range of applications, including power electronics, controls and mechatronic systems.

Description

Test S-Parameter model of ETQP4M220KVC

Designer19

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11 years 7 months

designs

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Member of the PartQuest Explore Development Team. Focused on modeling and simulation of analog, mixed-signal and multi-discipline systems covering a broad range of applications, including power electronics, controls and mechatronic systems.

Description

Copy of Compare Soft Saturation vs. Regular Inductor - Switching - on Fri, 01/19/2024 - 20:14

Designer253319

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1 year 5 months

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Welcome to the community!!

Description

This design shows the importance of choosing the right inductor size and type, to avoid saturation-induced current spikes during operating transients. In this case, the start-up transient in two nearly identical open-loop buck power stages (12V -&gt; 3V) is examined. The only difference is that the top circuit is using an inductor calibrated to a Coilcraft XAL6060-223 (22uH), which has "soft saturation" behavior. The bottom circuit is using a similarly sized inductor, but with a more typical "hard saturation" characteristic.

Both inductors work well for the steady-state load condition of 3 Amp. But during the turn-on transient, that current can go significantly above that nominal level. At that time, the instantaneous inductance of the hard-saturating device collapses, resulting in even larger current spikes in each switching interval. Note in the waveforms on the left: The soft-saturation inductance drops to 14uH minimum during the transient, whereas the hard-saturation inductance crashes to near 2uH, or only 10% of its nominal value!

Copy of Compare Soft Saturation vs. Regular Inductor - Switching - on Mon, 01/27/2020 - 10:09

Designer229238

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5 years 5 months

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Description

This design shows the importance of choosing the right inductor size and type, to avoid saturation-induced current spikes during operating transients. In this case, the start-up transient in two nearly identical open-loop buck power stages (12V -&gt; 3V) is examined. The only difference is that the top circuit is using an inductor calibrated to a Coilcraft XAL6060-223 (22uH), which has "soft saturation" behavior. The bottom circuit is using a similarly sized inductor, but with a more typical "hard saturation" characteristic.Both inductors work well for the steady-state load condition of 3 Amp. But during the turn-on transient, that current can go significantly above that nominal level. At that time, the instantaneous inductance of the hard-saturating device collapses, resulting in even larger current spikes in each switching interval. Note in the waveforms on the left: The soft-saturation inductance drops to 14uH minimum during the transient, whereas the hard-saturation inductance crashes to near 2uH, or only 10% of its nominal value!

Coilcraft AC impedance simplified

Designer10

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11 years 7 months

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Big fan of VHDL-AMS

Compare Soft Saturation vs. Regular Inductor - Switching

Designer40296

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Description

This design shows the importance of choosing the right inductor size and type, to avoid saturation-induced current spikes during operating transients. In this case, the start-up transient in two nearly identical open-loop buck power stages (12V -&gt; 3V) is examined. The only difference is that the top circuit is using an inductor calibrated to a Coilcraft XAL6060-223 (22uH), which has "soft saturation" behavior. The bottom circuit is using a similarly sized inductor, but with a more typical "hard saturation" characteristic. Both inductors work well for the steady-state load condition of 3 Amp. But during the turn-on transient, that current can go significantly above that nominal level. At that time, the instantaneous inductance of the hard-saturating device collapses, resulting in even larger current spikes in each switching interval. Note in the waveforms on the left: The soft-saturation inductance drops to 14uH minimum during the transient, whereas the hard-saturation inductance crashes to near 2uH, or only 10% of its nominal value!

Mendix SVG Testing - Compare Soft Saturation vs. Regular Inductor - Switching

Designer257

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10 years 1 month

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Description

This design shows the importance of choosing the right inductor size and type, to avoid saturation-induced current spikes during operating transients. In this case, the start-up transient in two nearly identical open-loop buck power stages (12V -&gt; 3V) is examined. The only difference is that the top circuit is using an inductor calibrated to a Coilcraft XAL6060-223 (22uH), which has "soft saturation" behavior. The bottom circuit is using a similarly sized inductor, but with a more typical "hard saturation" characteristic. Both inductors work well for the steady-state load condition of 3 Amp. But during the turn-on transient, that current can go significantly above that nominal level. At that time, the instantaneous inductance of the hard-saturating device collapses, resulting in even larger current spikes in each switching interval. Note in the waveforms on the left: The soft-saturation inductance drops to 14uH minimum during the transient, whereas the hard-saturation inductance crashes to near 2uH, or only 10% of its nominal value!