The two most popular technological directions in the current field of power electronics and magnetic components.Today we will discuss something about the Integrated inductors.
Integrated inductors represent an important trend in the development of magnetic components towards high frequency, miniaturization, integration, and high performance in the future. However, they are not intended to completely replace all traditional components, but rather become mainstream choices in their respective fields of expertise.
Integrated inductor is a revolutionary progress in wound inductors, which uses powder metallurgy technology to cast coils and magnetic materials
Why is it a development trend?
1. Extremely high reliability: Traditional inductors use magnetic cores glued together, which may crack under high temperature or mechanical vibration. The integrated structure completely wraps the coil inside a sturdy magnetic material, without glue or gaps, and has super strong anti vibration and anti impact capabilities, basically solving the biggest reliability pain point of traditional inductors.
2. Lower electromagnetic interference: The coil is completely shielded by magnetic powder, and the magnetic field lines are effectively confined inside the component, significantly reducing external electromagnetic radiation (EMI) while also being more resistant to external interference.
3. Low loss&high performance: The alloy powder magnetic material used has the characteristics of distributed air gaps, low core loss at high frequencies, high saturation current, and excellent DC bias characteristics.
4. Miniaturization: It can achieve larger inductance and higher saturation current in a smaller volume, meeting the requirements of “smaller and more efficient” electronic products.
Challenges:
*Cost: The manufacturing process is complex, and the cost of raw materials (alloy powder) is relatively high.
*Flexibility: Once the mold is finalized, the parameters (inductance value, saturation current) are fixed, unlike magnetic rod inductors which can be flexibly adjusted.
Application areas: DC-DC conversion circuits in almost all fields, especially in scenarios that require extremely high reliability and performance, such as:
*Automotive electronics: engine control unit, ADAS system, infotainment system (highest requirements).
*High end graphics card/server CPU: VRM (voltage regulation module) that provides high current and fast transient response for the core and memory.
*Industrial equipment, network communication equipment, etc.
*In the field of energy conversion and isolation (transformers), flat PCB technology is becoming the preferred choice for medium to high frequency and medium power applications.
*In the field of energy storage and filtering (inductors), integrated molding technology is rapidly replacing traditional magnetic sealed inductors in the high-end market, becoming the benchmark for high reliability.
In the future, with the advancement of materials science (such as low-temperature co fired ceramics, better magnetic powder materials) and manufacturing processes, these two technologies will continue to evolve, with stronger performance, further optimized costs, and a wider range of applications.
Post time: Sep-29-2025