Integrated bottom sunken surface mount and/or swing inductor and fabrication methods
AssigneeEaton Intelligent Power Limited
InventorsYipeng Yan, Dengyan Zhou, Kyle Yun-Su Kim
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Surface mount inductor components include pre-formed coils with integrated bottom sunken features and simply shaped core pieces configured to create magnetic gaps in an assembled core structure around the coils when desired. The magnetic gaps interrupt flux paths in the operating components and provide swing-inductor functionality. The magnetic gaps may be reliably and economically provided in the form of interior or exterior grooves or depressed surfaces that may be easily formed in the core pieces while also facilitating ease of assembly of the inductor components.
Claims22
An inductor assembly for a circuit board, the inductor assembly comprising:
- a magnetic core structure, comprising:
- first and second magnetic core pieces, wherein each of the first and second magnetic core pieces comprises a top side, a bottom side, a vertical front side, and a vertical rear side comprising a first vertical slot and a second vertical slot extending in spaced apart relation from the first vertical slot;
- and
- a third magnetic core piece interposed between the vertical rear sides of the first magnetic core piece and the second magnetic core piece, the third magnetic core piece comprising opposing top and bottoms sides and opposing vertical sides, wherein a combination of each of the first and second magnetic core pieces and the third magnetic core piece defines coil slots;
- and
- a first conductive winding assembled to the first magnetic core piece and the third magnetic core piece, and a second conductive winding assembled to the second magnetic core piece and the third magnetic core piece, each of the first and second conductive windings comprises a top section and first and second leg sections each extending perpendicular to the top section,
- wherein the top section of each of the conductive windings comprises an extension configured to be received at a respective recessed top surface of each of the first and second magnetic core pieces, wherein the extension is T-shaped,
- wherein each of the first and second leg sections of each of the first and second conductive windings comprises a surface mount termination located at a bottom section of that leg section, wherein when the first, second, and third magnetic core pieces are combined with the first and second conductive windings to form the inductor assembly, the surface mount terminations of the first and second leg sections protrude downward relative to the bottom sides of the first, second, and third magnetic core pieces to from a space between the inductor assembly and the circuit board.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.