Analysis of Electrothermal Homogenization for the Fast and Accurate Modeling of Windings in Power Electronics Magnetic Components

Abstract

This paper deals with the electro-thermal characterisation of multi-turn windings in the magnetic components of power electronics (PE) converters (inductors and transformers). The ever higher frequencies and smaller PE components demand the fast and accurate power loss computation for an optimal design accounting for severe electro-thermal constraints. Homogenisation techniques prove indispensable. Works on both electromagnetic and thermal homogenisation exist but mainly consider both physics independently. We aim at studying the interaction of the strongly coupled systems when applying homogenisation techniques. As test case, we consider a 2-D EI-planar inductor with two different multi-turn copper windings.