New Power Bead Inductors Meet the Need for Improved Efficiency

Jan 14, 2009 5:12 PM
PET News Staff

Pulse, a Technitrol company, introduced seven new series of power bead inductors, giving designers the ability to optimize performance across a broad range of applications, frequencies, and load requirements. Pulse’s highly efficient, off-the-shelf power beads are the best solution for multi-phase buck regulator applications. Their low direct current resistance (DCR) minimizes inductor conduction losses, their low-loss ferrite cores minimize inductor switching losses, and their small footprint enables more board layout flexibility. These new power bead inductors consist of two through-hole (THT) and five surface-mount (SMT) power bead series. The THT beads are typically used in power supplies for desktop computing, while SMT versions are used in notebook computing, servers, graphics cards, and point-of-load (PoL) applications.

The new Pulse power beads have a tightly controlled DCR for inductor current sense applications. This is important because in most applications the resistance of the inductor is used to sense the power supply current. Wide variations in inductor DCR impair over-current protection schemes and ultimately lead to a less-efficient design. In the past the inductor DCR had to be increased due to the inability of the integrated circuits (ICs) to sense the low voltage drop (I2R) across the inductor. Now that the ICs have improved their off-set voltage capabilities, these beads can have even lower DCR than previous versions, further improving efficiency.

Of special interest are the two new through-hole parts. These inductors are designed specifically for VR11 desktop architectures. Testing has shown them to increase efficiency by up to 9% at light load and over 5% at full load, helping computer manufacturers meet ENERGY STAR® requirements.

All Pulse power beads are RoHS compliant and can support a peak reflow soldering temperature of 260 degrees Celsius; they meet UL94 V0 standards. SMT inductors come in tape-and-reel packaging, while the THT inductors are packaged in trays. Prices start at $0.23 for quantities of 100,000. Lead-time is four to six weeks.

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