Planar transformers offer several advantages compared to traditional methods:
Low-Profile: The use of copper foil lead frames and flat ferrite cores eliminates the need for bulky 3D-shaped transformers, common in traditional wire-wound components.
Lightweight: Planar transformers are notably lighter, often weighing 3-4 times less than their wire-wound counterparts.
Efficient Inductance: In high-frequency transformers, most losses occur due to AC resistance rather than DC resistance. Planar Technology significantly reduces AC resistance losses compared to conventional wire-wound equivalents, resulting in enhanced transformer efficiency.
Highly Efficient Cooling: Planar transformers utilize flatter cores with a large surface area-to-volume ratio, making them ideal for heatsink mounting and forced air-cooling. This cooling efficiency greatly enhances overall transformer performance.
Low Leakage Inductance: The laminar construction and ease of interleaving in planar transformers ensure excellent magnetic coupling between windings, resulting in significantly lower leakage inductance values.
Unrivalled Repeatability: Planar components are constructed from pre-formed parts, streamlining the assembly process with only a few stages. This simplicity enables the production of planar transformers with consistently high repeatability.
Dimensional Accuracy: Multi-layered printed circuits and punched leadframes in planar transformers offer high dimensional accuracy, reducing the spread of leakage inductance and winding capacitance. This precision allows for better specification of snubbing components and minimizes associated losses. These parameters are vital in modern power converter design employing ZVS or ZCS (zero voltage switching / zero current switching).
Multiple Winding Options: Due to the simplified manufacturing process of planar transformers, winding ratios can be easily adjusted to suit specific design requirements during production. This flexibility reduces design costs and time when alterations are needed.
Multiple Topologies: Planar transformers can be applied to various switch mode power supply winding topologies. The manufacturing process allows for smoother transitions between topologies compared to traditional technology.
Customised Pin Positions: Himag Planar transformers, uniquely in the market, do not require a bobbin, allowing for easy incorporation of non-standard pin pitches into any design. Conventional technology would require larger cores and bobbins when the number of winding terminations exceeds that of the bobbin pins, leading to underutilization and increased costs.
Ideal Components: Planar components are electrically closer to ideal components than conventional technologies. This results in superior performance by minimizing detrimental effects on the circuit, compared to their wire-wound counterparts.
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