Comprehensive SPICE Model for Power Inductor Losses

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive SPICE model of a power inductor including winding losses, eddy current losses within a soft magnetic ferrite material and hysteresis losses as well as the self-resonance. With an adaption of the well-known Steinmetz’s equation for hysteresis losses, non-sinusoidal waveforms of hard-switching topologies such as DC/DC converters or PFC stages are taken into account. The small-signal impedance of the power inductor is modeled on basis of small-signal measurements that are adapted to an equivalent circuit by an algorithm. Outstanding advantages of the model are the simple generation out of data sheet parameters and a single impedance measurement as well as a good accuracy.