Voltage Tunable Mn-Zn Ring Core with Large Inductance Tunability

Miodrag Milutinov, Ljiljana Živanov, Nelu Blaž, Čedo Žlebič

Department of Power, Electronics and Communication Engineering
Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
miodragm@uns.ac.rs

Abstract: Influence of a DC electric field to inductance of a ring core inductor is analyzed. The
inductor is made of a commercial MnZn ferrite core with wounds of litz copper wire. A DC Electric
field is applied by connecting metalized surfaces of the core to a DC voltage source. Inductance of
commercial ring core inductor is measured in the frequency range from 10 kHz to 4 MHz. Applying the
electric field of 6 kV/m, depending on direction of applied field, the inductor exhibited a large
inductance tunability of 52% in a wide frequency range.

1. INTRODUCTION 2. SAMPLE PREPARATION

Inductors are very common elements in various As a sample under test a commercial MnZn ferrite
power electronic devices, RF communication devices, ring core 3F3 made by Ferroxcube is used. The core
and so on. Electronically controlled inductance can be with 6 mm inner diameter, 10 mm outer diameter and
very useful in many applications enabling design of 4 mm height has initial permeability of about 2000.
tunable circuits. Inductance can be tuned by applying The effective length of the core le is 24 mm, while the
either a DC magnetic field as in [1] or an electrostatic inductance factor AL is 740±25% nH. Testing the
field as in [2] and [3]. The inductance tunability in two influence of electric field to inductance is perform on
last papers are relied on magnetoelectric (ME) effects two tunable inductors with different structure. Both
witch have received widely attention during the last inductors have the same 3F3 MnZn core with wounds
decade due to their ability to exchange energy between of litz copper wire but with different direction of
magnetic and electric fields, as explained in [4]. A applied DC electric field.
voltage controlled inductance of a bar core made of
Fig. 1 shows the structure of the first tunable
Metglas/PZT/Meglas [2] or a ring core made of
inductor and direction of applied electric field.
PZT/MnZn/PZT [3] laminated composite are
analyzed. In both papers, an electrostatic field applied
across the core has large influence to the inductance of
those inductors. In [2] an electric field of 1200 kV/m
decrease the inductance from 200 µH to 3,5 µH, while
in [3] an electric field of ±300 kV/m change the initial
inductance of 0.97 mH, increasing and decreasing
inductance to 1.30 mH and 0.66 mH, respectively.
Instead of electrostatic field, in this paper authors
analyzed a possibility of tuning the inductance
applying a DC electric field inside the core. In order to
apply DC electric field, from a two opposite surface of
the ferrite ring core is removed polyamide (PA11)
coat, metalized with silver paste and connected to the Fig. 1. (a) Structure of first tunable inductor with
DC voltage source. measurement setup (b) the directions of electric field.

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The upper and bottom side of the core is coated with
silver paste to obtain good ohmic contacts. The
metalized surfaces are connected to a DC voltage
source. Fig. 1b shows that the DC electric field inside
the core has direction along z-axis, which is
perpendicular to direction of AC magnetic field
generated by current from impedance analyzer. The
N1=10 turns wound on the core of first sample are
connected to the impedance analyzer HP 4194A.
Fig. 2a shows the structure of the second tunable
inductor. In order to apply the DC electric field, a two
opposite spots located on the side of the core is coated
with silver paste to obtain good ohmic contacts. The
metalized spots are connected to a DC voltage source,
while the N2=16 turns wound on the core are
connected to the impedance analyzer HP 4194A.
multimeter. Using the Ohms law, the resistance of the
core R is
R = V I DC . (1)
In this experiment, it is assumed that the electric
field inside the core is nearly uniform. The intensity of
the DC electric field for the first sample is
E =V h , (2)
where h is the height of the core. The intensity of the
DC electric field for the second sample is
E = 2V le , (3)
where le is the effective length of the core. The
numerical results of the current, temperature,
resistance and electric field for the first and second
structure is listed in Table 1 and Table 2, respectively.
Table 1. The current, resistance, electric field and
temperature of the core surface for various values of applied
voltage for the first structure of tunable inductors.

V (V) IDC (mA) R (kΩ) E (kV/m) T (°)

0 0 -- 0 28
4 2.54 1.57 1.0 28
8 6.30 1.27 2.0 30
12 12.0 1.00 3.0 35
Fig. 2. (a) Structure of second tunable inductor with 16 20.0 0.80 4.0 47
measurement setup (b) the directions of electric field 20 40.0 0.50 5.0 65
Fig. 2b shows the direction of applied DC electric 24 50.0 0.48 6.0 120
field inside the core, which is parallel to xy-plane. The
electric field is also perpendicular to direction of AC
magnetic field, which is similar as in the first Table 2. The current, resistance, electric field and
temperature of the core surface for various values of applied
structure.
voltage for the second structure of tunable inductors.

3. MEASUREMENT RESULTS V (V) IDC (mA) R (kΩ) E (kV/m) T (°)

0 0 -- 0 27
The influence of electric field to inductance is 4 0.30 13.33 0.33 27
measure by increasing the DC voltage, V from 0 to 8 0.64 12.50 0.66 27
32 V in step of 4 V. For each step the inductance of the 12 1.00 12.00 0.99 27
samples is measure with impedance analyzer
16 1.40 11.43 1.33 27
HP4194A in frequency range from 10 kHz to 4 MHz.
Simultaneously with the inductance, a DC current and 20 1.88 10.64 1.66 27
temperature of the core surface is measured. The DC 24 2.40 10.00 1.99 29
current, IDC is measured using digital multimeter, 28 2.95 9.49 2.33 30
while the temperature, T of the core surface is measure 32 3.50 9.14 2.66 30
with thermocouple type K connected to the

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 The initial inductance Li of the analyzed inductors The initial inductance of the first inductor without
using 3F3 core with inductance factor AL and with N applied electric field is L0 = 75μH . Tunability of the
turns is calculated as inductor is calculated as
Li = AL × N 2 , (4) L − L0
δL= × 100% (5)
L0
and listed in Table 3.
Table 3. The initial inductance of the analyzed inductors. where L and L0 are initial inductance with and without
applied electric field, respectively. Increasing the
Sample No. N AL (nH) Li (µH) electric field the inductance increase too, exhibiting
1 10 740±25% 74,0 the final value of initial inductance of about 113 µH at
6 kV/m, providing the maximum tunability of 52%.
2 16 740±25% 189,5

The serial inductance and serial resistance of the

inductor with the electric field as parameter is
measured in frequency range from 10 kHz up to
4 MHz. Results of the measurements for the first
sample under test are illustrated in Fig. 3.

Fig. 4. (a) Serial inductance and (b) serial resistance of the

Fig. 3. (a) Serial inductance and (b) serial resistance of the
first sample as a function of frequency.
first sample as a function of frequency.
The initial inductance of the second inductor
without applied electric field is L0 = 185 µH.
Increasing the electric field the inductance increase
too, exhibiting the final value of about 200 µH at
2.66 kV/m. The maximum tunability of second sample
is 8.15%, which is less than in first inductor’s case.

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The reason of this decreased maximum tunability is
lower maximum electric field obtained for the same
voltage.
Fig. 5a and 5b shows inductance at three different
frequencies and temperature of the core surface as a
function of applied electric field for the first and
second sample, respectively.
Fig. 4. Serial inductance and temperature of the core surface
of (a) first and (b) second sample as a function of applied
electric field.
Initial inductance and temperature of the core
increase with the electric field. Electric field inside the
core produces electrical current that according to the
Joule’s law heats the core. Increasing the temperature
of the ferrite core the initial permeability of MnZn 3F3
ferrite material increase, too. [5]. Therefore, the DC
978-1-5386-5731-7/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
electric field inside the core indirectly increase the
permeability of the core by increasing the core’s
temperature providing tunability of the inductor.
3. CONCLUSION
In this paper is analyzed influence of DC electric
field applied inside the ferrite core of inductor to its
inductance. The DC electric field produce the DC
electric current that heat the core according the Joule’s
law. Increasing the temperature of ferrite core its
permeability increase, too, which is common ferrite’s
behavior. Therefore, a DC electric field could be used
to tune the inductance of inductors with ferrite cores.
In this paper a commercial MnZn ferrite core is used.
DC electric field of 6 kV/m increase the temperature
of the core to about 120 °C, increasing the initial
inductance of the inductor of 52%.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work is supported by the Serbian Ministry of
Education, Science and Technological Development
under the grant for the project TR 32016.
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4 2018 41st International Spring Seminar on Electronics Technology (ISSE)