Permanent magnet inductor design

Permanent magnet inductors (PMI) are useful in dc biased applications. They utilize the flux produced by a permanent magnet (PM) to partially offset the flux established by current in the inductor winding. The addition of permanent magnets allows for decreased inductor mass for a given inductor current and inductance rating. Herein, the Pareto-optimal front between loss and mass is established for a PMI inductor and is compared to that of a traditional EI core inductor. It is shown that the PMI inductor is significantly less massive than the EI core inductor for a given loss.