2017.

Application Note

Polarity of power inductors in DC-DC converter

Considering Polarity of Power Inductor to

Reduce Radiated Emission of DC-DC converter
Introduction
Power inductors are a part of the power stage of switch mode power supplies (SMPS) like none isolated DC-DC
buck converter. Power traces from printed circuit board (PCB), power supply lines and power inductor causing
electromagnetically interferences (EMI) noise like radiated emission. Leakage filed of power inductors influences
overall radiated emission of a SMPS. Manufacturer of power inductors defining start of winding and specifying
wiring of coils, also developing shielded coils to reduce radiated emission of SMPS. It is important to take care
about coil orientation during the mounting process of a coil on a PCB. This application note is about radiated
emission caused by a power inductor in a DC-DC converter dependent to the polarity of a coil.

Leakage flux of power inductors
A power inductor consist of an insulated wire wounded
around a core made of a high permeability material.
Electrical current flowing through a wire causes a
magnetic field surrounding it orientated clockwise with
direction of the current. When winding on a magnetic core
and applying current, the magnetic flux refluxes the inside
of the core and causes a magnetic stray field surrounding
the coil.
Unshielded coils have open drum core with an open
magnetic path. In the case of using unshielded coils, the
magnetic flux leaves the core and becomes a leakage
flux, which forms a loop that returns to the core. The
magnetic flux widely spreads around the coil like shown
in Figure 1.
Shielded coils that are more expensive cover and hide
the drum core and windings with a box made by the same
magnetic material used for the core.
This allows magnetic flux passing an air gap between the
pot core and the shielding box to let the magnetic flux flow
through the shielding box. This is shown in Figure 2.

FIGURE 1: MAGNETIC FLUX IN UNSHIELDED DRUM CORE FIGURE 2: MAGNETIC FLUX IN SHIELDED DRUM CORE COILS
COLS

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Application Note

Since the magnetic flux refluxes inside of the drum core In this case, magnetic flux leaves the drum core from
and the shield core, the magnetic path inside the coil is bottom of coil and becomes a leakage flux, which forms
closed and the leakage flux is reduced. a loop that returns to the top of drum core.

However, magnetic shielding does not always provide Rotating coil in circuit on PCB by 180°, changes current
complete encapsulation, and flux can leak from the air flow through inductor. This changes H-field surrounding
gap or terminal of the junction between the shield material wire and coil. Resulting magnetic flux through drum core
and drum core. of coil changes direction, too.

Magnetic flux dependent to start of winding Figure 4 shows coil with orientation of 180° and resulting
magnetic field direction as well magnetic flux. Current flow
Direction of magnetic flux in the core and surrounded
is through inductor from “end” to “start” of winding.
resulting H-field is dependent on current which flows
through a wire from a coil.
coil orientation 180°
The leakage flux and H-field increases in power inductors
with increasing current.

Figure 3 shows coil with orientation of 0°. Resulting

magnetic field direction as well magnetic flux. Current flow H
H H
is through inductor from “start” to “end” of winding. H

H Start of winding
coil orientation 0°
I
PCB trace
PCB
V
H
H H
H
Start of winding H
FIGURE 4: MAGNETIC FLUX AND H-FIELD WITH COIL
ORIENTATION OF 180°
I
PCB trace Picture with coil orientation of 180° shows different
PCB
direction of H-field and flux by changed direction of DC
V
current flow though coil wire.

FIGURE 3: MAGNETIC FLUX
ORIENTATION OF 0°
Here, magnetic flux leaves the drum core from top of coil
AND H-FIELD WITH COIL
and becomes a leakage flux, which forms a loop that
returns to the bottom of drum core.

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H-field of power inductors on PCB
Magnetic field which is surrounding power inductor on
PCB is in correlation to direction of magnetic flux through
coil. Leakage flux also depends on the coil structure and
size. Smaller size of coil reduces leakage flux.
Changing polarity of coil by rotating power inductor by
180° on PCB in electronic circuit of SMPS, changes
pattern current direction of current through the coils wire
which leads to change a direction of magnetic flux inside
the core of a coil.
Figure 5 shows simulated horizontal magnetic field
distribution on PCB surface dependent on polarity of coil.
FIGURE 5: MAGNETIC FIELDS DEPEND ON THE POLARITY
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Application Note
The red color indicates that the magnetic field strength is
higher and the blue color indicates that the magnetic
field strength is lower.
If the leakage magnetic flux direction of the inductor
changes, then the interference degree with the magnetic
field from the wiring pattern changes. Polarity of coil
surrounding magnetic field is changed.
When two coils are placed close together on PCB,
magnetic flux are leaked from a coil to influence another.
Therefore, current flow through inductor from start to end
of winding is to consider with both inductors.
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Application Note

Near H-field measurement system The data of the obtained time waveform is converted into
a spectrum waveform by a spectrum analyzer, and then
To analyze magnetic field of power inductors near H-field
it is displayed as 3D graphics on a monitor.
measurements can performed to visualize leakage flux in
a 3D graphics. The horizontal H-field has directionality, and the
electromotive force of the loop antenna is maximized
The basic configuration of the system used to measure
when the loop antenna surface and magnetic flux cross
near H-field surrounding power inductor using the system
at the right angle. Therefore, as for the horizontal
and its visualization is shown in Figure 6.

FIGURE 6: TEST SETUP OF NEAR H-FIELD MEASUREMENT SYSTEM

The power inductor mounted on the evaluation board of magnetic field, the probe is rotated in four directions
the DC-DC converter is scanned with the H-field probe (every 45 °) and the maximum voltage is measured.
equipped with the small loop antenna at the half-height of
the power inductor, and the magnetic field strength
around the power inductor is measured in a defined
frequency band depending to switching frequency of
DC-DC converter.

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Application Note

Near H-field measurement Highest value of magnetic flux is at coils center with
105 dBµF.
In next example, a ROHM Semiconductor evaluation
board using the automotive DC-DC converter IC Coil is rotated by 180° to analyze magnetic field
BD9P235EFV with a 10 µH mounted CLF-NI-D series dependency to polarity of coil in DC-DC converter.
power inductor from TDK in order to analyze H-field
Measurement result shows change in spreading
dependency on polarity of power inductor. This DC-DC
magnetic field, but intensity is not changed. Magnetic flux
converter is operating with a switching frequency of
is still about 105 dBµV at coils top center.
2.2 MHz.
In both test cases, magnitude of magnetic flux is about
Figure 7 shows test result of horizontal near magnetic
90 dBµV beside coil.
field analysis from evaluation board top side in frequency
range from 1 MHz to 10 MHz

Inductor Rotation: 0°

Scale

Inductor Rotation: 180°

FIGURE 7: HORIZONTAL H-FIELD OF POWER INDUCTOR

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Near H-field analysis in frequency domain
The current through a power inductor is inherently
discontinuous and is alternating with the switching
frequency of the DC-DC converter. The coils copper
windings around the core form a loop, which are radiating
a magnetic field causing electromagnet noise in near field
over a narrow band. The magnetic field strength is
depending from inductor current, wire loop size and
distance from coil. A spectrum analyzer and a near field
H-probe can used to analyze magnetic near field of a
power inductor in a DC-DC converter in frequency
domain.
Figure 8 shows radiation of magnetic field of a TDK’s
CLF-series power inductor on the BD9P235EFV
evaluation board with coil orientation of 0°.
FIGURE 8: MAGNETIC NEAR FIELD OF POWER INDUCTOR IN
FREQUENCY DOMAIN WITH 0°ROTATION
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Application Note
Near field analysis shown with Figure 8 is made in
horizontal polarization of H-field probe.
Highest peak is 78 dBµV at the fundamental oscillation at
DC-DC converters switching frequency of 2.2 MHz.
Further harmonics peaks will drop by 20 dB/decade at
higher frequency range.
Orientation of the inductor has an impact in absorbing the
magnetic field. Changing polarity of inductor with rotating
coil by 180° changes amplitude of absorbed magnetic
field. Figure 9 shows difference by changing polarity of
inductor by 180°.
FIGURE 9: MAGNETIC NEAR FIELD OF POWER INDUCTOR IN
FREQUENCY DOMAIN WITH 180°ROTATION
Highest peak is at the fundamental oscillation now
increased to 88 dBµV. Also further harmonics are
increased in their amplitude.
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Application Note

Radiation of SMPS

SMPS converter emitting electromagnetic noise by

radiation of common mode currents by cables or
antennas formed by loops in design. Radiation is
complex and depends on a number of factors. These
includes common mode current in cables, differential
mode noise at SMPS input, cable lengths, loops in PCB
of SMPS power traces, high dV/dt at switching node,
power inductor polarity and size.

An electromagnetic field consists an E-field which is

perpendicular to H-field. SMPS is radiating
electromagnetic noise over a wide frequency range,
emitted by power inductors loop, in loop formed power
supply traces on PCB and high dV/dt at switch node.

Depending to switching frequency, cycling inductor in

power stage of SMPS leads to oscillations in a frequency
range of 40 MHz to 300 MHz on switch note because of
parasitic effects in PCB design. Oscillations causing
electromagnetic radiated noise over a broadband
frequency range. In worst case, electromagnetic radiation
can be dependent on power inductors polarity.

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Application Note

Radiation of SMPS dependent to Coil At next, coil has been rotated by 180° to analyze radiation
of electromagnetic noise dependent to coil orientation.
Changing orientation of coil changes polarity of H-field of
Figure 11 shows test result with same board.
coil which is perpendicular to E-field on switch node.
Amplitude of electromagnetic radiation in frequency
range of oscillation at switch node is changed. Amplitude
of emitted peaks are depending to PCB design and coil.
Peak value could vary between 10 and 20dBµV/m.

The same evaluation board is used to analyze radiated

emission dependent to coil orientation. Radiated
emissions from these test board were measured using
the CISPR 25 measurement setup. Battery are
connected to the equipment under test through 1.5
meters long cables in the shielded enclosure, located on FIGURE 11: ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN FM
a wooden table on a conductive metal plate. BROADCAST, COIL ROTATION IS 180°

Figure 10 Shows radiated emission test in FM Broadcast In this frequency band, a huge difference in between both
Bands (150 KHz to 108MHz) where start of winding from tests is to recognize, because noise is highest with
coil is connected to switch node of DC-DC converter. switching frequency with 2.2MHz of DC-DC converter
and further harmonics which is radiated by input cables.

This test result shows a worst case dependent to coil

orientation which. Radiated electromagnetic noise of
DC-DC converter is above CISPR 25 level.

At next, we are going to analyze radiated electromagnetic

noise of DC-DC converter dependent to coil orientation
based on CISPR 25 standard in communication band.

FIGURE 10: ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN FM

BROADCAST, COIL ROTATION IS 0°

This test result shows that radiated electromagnetic noise

of DC-DC converter is below CISPR 25 level.

All next test results are with horizontal polarization of

antenna. Test results with vertical polarization of antenna
are similar and not shown for this reason.

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Application Note

Figure 12 Shows radiated emission test in This test result shows a higher radiated noise compared
communication band (30 MHz to 1GHz) with coil to test result from Figure 11, thus noise level is still below
orientation of 0°. CISPR 25 level and this EMC test have been passed.

Electromagnetic emission tests based on other

standards e.g. industrial standards like EN55022 would
bring different test results, because of different test setup.
Instead of automotive standard CISPR25, industrial
standard EN55022 defines measure electromagnetic
radiation directly of DUT from all sides and not from
power supply cables.

Electromagnetic radiated noise is strongly dependent

and is reduced by an input filter placed at input circuit of
FIGURE 12: ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN
DC-DC converter. All test of radiated emissions were
COMMUNICATION BANDS, COIL ROTATION IS 0° done with an input π-filter.

Also this test result shows that radiated electromagnetic

noise of DC-DC converter is below CISPR 25 level. High
noise level is to see at broadband frequency range at 70
to 100 MHz and 200 to 400 MHz caused by oscillations
in PCB design.

At next, coil has been rotated by 180° to analyze radiation

of electromagnetic noise dependent to coil orientation.
Figure 13. test result with same board.

FIGURE 13: ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION IN

COMMUNICATION BANDS, COIL ROTATION IS 180°

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Implementing power inductors in SMPS
To avoid influence of radiated emission of electronic
equipment and coupling of magnetic flux by inductors
which are placed close to each other, polarization of
power inductor has to be considered during schematic
design of SMPS and electronic manufacturing process.
For this reason, power inductors have a defined winding
direction on the drum core defined by their manufacturer.
Start of winding is indicated as a polarity by a mark on the
coil like shown in Figure 14 of a shielded drum core
power inductor from TDK.
FIGURE 14: POLARITY MARK OF CLF-NI-D SERIES POWER
INDUCTOR FROM TDK
The 'box' on the inductor package represents the start of
winding. Manufacturers of power inductors are using
different ways to mark start of winding. Marking can vary
from dots to boxes placed on surface of coil package.
Start of winding of power inductor has to be connected as
shown in Figure 15 close to the switch node in circuit of
power stage to reduce radiated emission of SMPS.
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Application Note
FIGURE 15: POWER STAGE OF DC-DC CONVERTER WITH
DEFINED COIL ORIENTATION
Conclusion
SMPS emitting radiated emission, which can be
dependent to power inductors orientation in power stage.
Connecting the start of winding of coil to switching node
can reduce radiated emission and avoid magnetic
coupling between inductors placed close to each other.
Choosing shielded coil types and small sizes improves
reduction of electromagnetic radiation of SMPS as well.
By Stefan Klein, FAE, ATSC
Reference
(1) TDK, Selection Guide for Power Inductors in
Consideration of Leakage Flux
(2) TDK, Leakage Flux of Power Inductors
(3) Takeshi Murase, Investigation of Buck
Converter Radiated, Emissions (150 kHz – 30
MHz) Measured, according to CISPR 25
(4) Y. Hoshino, SAGAMI ELEC Co. LTD, Tips for
coil users
No. 62AN097E Rev.001
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