Composite material, reactor-use core, reactor, converter, and power converter apparatus

Abstract

A reactor 1 of the present invention includes a coil 2 and a magnetic core 3 disposed inside and outside the coil 2 to form a closed magnetic path. At least part of the magnetic core 3 is made of a composite material containing a magnetic substance powder made of an identical material and a resin containing the powder being dispersed therein. In the particle size distribution of the magnetic substance powder, a plurality of peaks are present. That is, the magnetic substance powder contains both a fine powder and a coarse powder at high frequencies. Since the composite material contains the fine powder, it can reduce the eddy current loss, and hence achieves to be a low-loss material. Thanks to the mixed powder including the fine powder and the coarse powder, the packing density of the magnetic substance powder is increased. Thus, the composite material exhibits a high saturation magnetic flux density. By employing such a mixed powder, the raw material powder can be handled with ease, and excellent manufacturability of the composite material is obtained.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.