2011 International Symposium on Electronic System Design

Nonlinear Inductance Measurement Using an Energy Storage Approach

Manoj Kumar Meena Rohit Khanna Dipankar

Electrical Engineering TREELabs Electrical Engineering TREELabs Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Mumbai, India Mumbai, India Mumbai, India
Email: manojkm@iitb.ac.in Email: rohit.treelabs@gmail.com Email: dipankar@treelabs.org

Abstract—A novel method to measure inductance of power

inductors is presented in this paper. Energy stored in inductors
was used to measure the nonlinear inductance as function of
current flow. Inductance was measured for air core (control
sample) and ferrite core inductors with increasing levels of
currents through them. It was found that air core inductor
behaved linearly as expected. Data for ferrite core inductor
provided insight into saturation characteristics of magnetic
materials.
Keywords-inductance; saturation; energy storage; resonance;

I. I NTRODUCTION Figure 1. Parallel LC tank

In power supplies, dc-dc converters and many other power
electronics circuits, power inductors are essential part of
the circuit [1], [2]. It is important for circuit designers to
obtain the inductance at the operating point to make correct
design decisions. At present most inductance measuring
instruments measure small signal behavior. However, in most
applications in power electronics, large currents flow through
the inductor. Due to saturation and nonlinear properties of
magnetic core, inductance decreases with increase in current
[3], [4]. So it is important to measure inductance when
desired level of current is flowing through the inductor.
Inductor acts as an energy storage device [5], [6]. Also
energy stored in inductors may be measured accurately. We
designed and implemented an energy storage technique to
accurately measure nonlinear inductance.
II. C URRENT M ETHODS
Bridge method, resonant method, I-V method, network
analysis method and auto-balancing bridge method are small
signal measurement methods [7]. They are used to measure
inductance accurately. But they do not measure saturation
characteristics, because large currents need to flow through
the inductor.
di
Current slew rate or dt method is often used to measure
inductance and observe nonlinear characteristics [8]. In this
method, a rectangular voltage impulse is applied to the
inductor under test. A current ramp is created in the test
component, whose dt di
slew rate depends on the inductance
and its saturation characteristics. If the desired current level
is reached, the voltage impulse is cut off. By making
calculations based on the profile of dt di
slew rate of current,
a complete nonlinear behavior for the test component is
obtained. However, to generate high voltage rectangular
impulses is difficult and expensive to implement. Also one
di
needs high speed data acquisition to obtain profile of dt slew
rate of current more accurately.
III. E NERGY S TORAGE M ETHOD
Energy storage method uses the energy stored in a parallel
LC tank at resonance to measure inductance. Consider the
parallel LC tank circuit excited by a sinusoidal source
Asin(ωt) as shown in Fig. 1. Total energy E stored in LC
tank is given as the sum of energy stored in capacitor EC
and energy stored in inductor EL .
E = EC + EL (1)
1 1
E= CvC 2 + LiL 2 (2)
2 2
where vC is voltage across capacitor and iL is current
through inductor.
In reality, dissipation or loss in inductor and capacitor
is inevitable. In steady state, energy will be provided by
the source to compensate for these losses, keeping the total
energy E in LC tank constant.
Fig. 2 shows the waveforms of inductor current iL and
capacitor voltage vC at resonance. They are 90◦ out of phase.
At instant t = t2 and t = t4 , vC has reached it peak value
VCmax and iL is zero. All energy is stored in capacitor as

978-0-7695-4570-7/11 $26.00 © 2011 IEEE 30

DOI 10.1109/ISED.2011.72
 Figure 3. Schematic of experimental setup

LC tank. Ammeter A1 was used to measure peak currents

Figure 2. Waveforms of inductor current iL and capacitor voltage vC at
resonance through the inductor and voltmeter V1 was used to measure
peak voltage across the capacitor. Frequency and amplitude
were changed in specified steps while peak voltage across
the capacitor and peak currents through the inductor were
1
E= CVCmax 2 (3) obtained. The peaks in voltages and currents allowed one to
2 determine resonance characteristics, and extraction of other
Similarly at t = t1 and t = t3 , vC is zero and iL has parameters.
reached its peak value ILmax . All energy is stored in inductor
as V. E XPERIMENTAL DATA
A. Air core (control sample) inductor
1
E= LILmax 2 (4) An air core inductor was used as a control sample. The
2
inductor was designed by winding 60 turns of 22 SWG
This energy is constant and oscillates in between inductor wire over a 25mm diameter ceramic tube. A capacitor
(energy in magnetic field) and capacitor (energy in electric of 0.47μF/305V was placed in parallel to this inductor
field) in LC tank [5]. From (3) and (4), we can write forming the LC tank. Resonance curves were obtained for
1 1 different source amplitudes Vs . Fig. 4 shows plot of peak
CVCmax 2 = LILmax 2 (5) capacitor voltage vs frequency. And Fig. 5 shows plot of
2 2
peak inductor current vs frequency.
From the resonance curves we observe that there is no
CVCmax 2 = LILmax 2 (6)
significant change in resonance frequency with increasing
Hence, levels of peak inductor current. This confirms linearity of
air core inductor as expected. One obtained maximum values
VCmax 2 VCmax of peak capacitor voltage and maximum values ILmax
L=C (7)
ILmax 2 of peak inductor current from the resonance curves for
where C is capacitance of capacitor, and L is inductance different source amplitudes Vs . Inductance L was calculated
of inductor. C is taken as reference to calculate L and it is using (7), inductance L vs current ILmax is plotted in Fig.
assumed to be constant. 6. Measured inductance values range was from 60.5μH to
68.3μH (average value 64.7μH).
IV. E XPERIMENTAL S ETUP
B. Ferrite core inductor
An automated experimental setup was designed to per-
A toroidal ferrite core (T16) was used to make the
form the energy storage method in a fast and efficient
inductor. It had 30 turns of 22 SWG wire. Capacitor of
way. Fig. 3 shows the schematic of experimental setup. We
0.94μF (two 0.47μF/305V in parallel) was placed in
have used three instruments: RF Source, Ammeter A1 and
parallel to inductor forming the LC tank. Resonance curves
Voltmeter V1. All instruments were connected to the circuit
were obtained for different source amplitudes Vs . Fig. 7
under test and controlled from a computer. The instruments
shows plot of peak capacitor voltage vs frequency. And Fig.
were electrically isolated with respect to each other and the
8 shows plot of peak inductor current vs frequency.
network. Instruments were also floating with respect to the
From the resonance curve it is observed that the resonance
circuit under test. In the experiments, RF Source generated
frequency shifted towards higher frequencies with increasing
signals of desired frequency and amplitude to excite the

31
 55 60
Vs = 1V
50
Vs = 1.5V Vs = 2V
Vs = 2V Vs = 3V
45
Vs = 2.5V 50 Vs = 4V
Vs = 3V Vs = 5V
Peak voltage across LC tank (V)

Vs = 3.5V Vs = 5.5V
40
Vs = 4V Vs = 6V
Vs = 4.5V 40
35 Vs = 6.5V
Vs = 5V
Vs = 7V
Vs = 5.5V
30 Vs = 7.5V
Vs = 6V
30 Vs = 8V
Vs = 6.5V
25
Vs = 7V Vs = 8.5V
Vs = 7.5V Vs = 9V
20
Vs = 8V Vs = 9.5V
20
Vs = 8.5V Vs = 10V
15 Vs = 9V Vs = 10.5V
Vs = 9.5V Vs = 11V
10 Vs = 10V 10 Vs = 11.5V
Vs = 10.5V Vs = 12V
5 Vs = 11V Vs = 13V
0 0
4 4.5 5 5.5 3 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4
Frequency (Hz) 4 4
x 10 x 10

Figure 4. Peak capacitor voltage vs Frequency (for air core) Figure 7. Peak capacitor voltage vs Frequency (for ferrite core)

4.5 10
Vs = 1V
Vs = 1.5V Vs = 2V
4 Vs = 2V 9
Vs = 3V
Peak current through inductor in LC tank (A)

Vs = 2.5V
Vs = 4V
3.5 Vs = 3V 8 Vs = 5V
Vs = 3.5V
Vs = 4V
Vs = 5.5V
3 7 Vs = 6V
Vs = 4.5V
Vs = 5V Vs = 6.5V
6 Vs = 7V
2.5 Vs = 5.5V
Vs = 6V Vs = 7.5V
Vs = 6.5V 5 Vs = 8V
2 Vs = 7V Vs = 8.5V
Vs = 7.5V 4 Vs = 9V
1.5 Vs = 8V Vs = 9.5V
Vs = 8.5V 3 Vs = 10V
1
Vs = 9V Vs = 10.5V
Vs = 9.5V 2 Vs = 11V
Vs = 10V Vs = 11.5V
0.5 Vs = 10.5V Vs = 12V
Vs = 11V 1
Vs = 13V
0
4 4.5 5 5.5 0
3 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4
Frequency (Hz) 4
x 10 4
x 10

Figure 5. Peak inductor current vs Frequency (for air core) Figure 8. Peak inductor current vs Frequency (for ferrite core)

200

180
Air core inductor
different source amplitudes Vs . Inductance L was calculated
160
using (7), inductance L vs current ILmax is plotted in Fig. 9.
Initial inductance was around 66μH. There was a steep fall
Measured inductance (uH)

140
in inductance L after 5-6 amperes of current. If we define
120
saturation current Isat to be the inductor current level which
cause 10% fall in its inductance, then measured value of Isat
100

80
for this ferrite core inductor was 5.68A as highlighted by a
60 green vertical dotted line in Fig. 9.
40

20

0
VI. C ONCLUSION
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
Current through inductor(A)

The energy storage technique is novel method to de-

Figure 6.
levels of peak inductor current. This indicates non-linear
magnetization behavior of ferrite. One obtained maximum
values VCmax of peak capacitor voltage and maximum values
ILmax of peak inductor current from the resonance curves for
Inductance L vs Current ILmax for air core inductor
termine nonlinear magnetic properties of cores used in
power electronics magnetics. The ability to measure physical
properties that directly relates to energy storage in power
electronics components is more useful than traditional small
signal measurement methods. This technique appears to have
the potential to perform certain impedance spectroscopies
related to magnetic materials.

32
 100
Ferrite core inductor
90

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Figure 9. Inductance L vs Current ILmax for ferrite core inductor

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[4] J.G.Zhu, S.Y.R.Hui and V.S.Ramsden, “Discrete modeling of

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[5] Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton and Matthew Sands,

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[6] Clayton R. Paul, “Inductance: Loop and Partial,”pp. 13-80,

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