TDK updates Magnetic Design Tool

By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief

TDK Corp. has released its Magnetic Design Tool  with enhanced functionality to make it easier to calculate and display materials properties. The updated tool enables the fast calculation and graphical representation of application-related parameters for all EPCOS ferrite materials. This includes new materials for high-frequency switch-mode power supplies and core shapes.

The design tool is available as a browser-based application or can be downloaded for use with Windows 10 operating systems. The tool has been tested with popular browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera.

The tool allows users to define the parameters for their own cores and then use them in their calculations, said TDK. It can be used to calculate and display the most important material properties, such as power loss versus frequency, flux density, temperature, and performance factor.

Materials properties include:

• Hysteresis loop
• Power loss versus frequency, flux density, temperature, and performance factor
• Initial permeability versus temperature
• Amplitude permeability versus flux density or field strength
• Complex permeability versus frequency in serial and parallel representation

It can also perform a wide range of core calculations, including the AL-value in dependence to the air gap, the determination of transferable power, or the calculation of impedance versus frequency.

Depending on the material and core, core calculations include:

• Overview of data
• Calculation of AL-value in dependence of the air gap (or vice versa)
• Representation of effective permeability over temperature
• Determination of transferable power Ptrans
• Calculation of third harmonic distortion under circuit conditions
• Calculation of appropriate air gap, Al value, and the number of turns for a given permeability drop p (%), representing the curve of inductance or permeability versus DC bias
• Display of ratio of the AC to DC resistance versus frequency