Magnetic characterization of low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) ferrite materials for high frequency power converters

Low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) ferrite materials are promising candidates for magnetic substrate of high frequency converters. The inductors can be fabricated into the magnetic substrate so the power density of the converter can be dramatically increased. There are three types of LTCC ferrite tape materials from ESL Electro Science^®: 40010, 40011 and 40012. To utilize these materials for suitable applications, their permeability and core loss characteristics under different pre-magnetization conditions should be measured in order to estimate the inductance and core loss of the inductor in high frequency integrated converters. The measurement uses a new high frequency measurement setup, which can provide permeability and core loss density information under DC pre-magnetization condition. Finally, three LTCC ferrite materials´ characteristics are compared and discussed.