Physical modeling of spiral inductors vs air gap for DC-DC power converter design optimization

Abstract

Design of power systems needs prototype-less approaches. In particular, accurate simulations of a magnetic device are required during analysis of a given integrated power system. The planar and magnetic inductor is not available in device simulators and remains a difficult device to model particularly versus its air gap. This paper focuses on the modeling of magnetic planar inductors by calculating the air gap of the magnetic core. During the validation process, different types of magnetic core have been tested. The proposed planar inductor model is compared to the 3-D finite element method and has been confirmed with measured results of inductors having a large range of layout and process parameters. These inductors are also implemented in a DC-DC converter, validating high-efficiency integrated power system.