Inductor design for high power applications with broad spectrum excitation

The design of high power inductors for applications with broad current spectrum excitation is a challenging task. The resonant inductor of a resonant DC link inverter (RDCLI) is one such example. The inductor current consists of a resonant current component, a DC component which supplies the active power to the load and a modulation component which depends on the modulation strategy. In addition, the frequency and amplitude of the dominant current components change with operating point. Conventional inductor designs for single frequency excitation do not perform well in broad spectrum applications. In order to improve these designs, the impact of broad current spectrums on winding design, core selection, power density and thermal handling capability must be investigated. In this paper, alternate inductor topologies which better address the above issues are proposed and investigated