In the field of magnetic components, different names are often used for similar products. Inductors, chokes, and reactors are examples of this, as they all refer to the same function. In the following text, we use the term inductors for clarity. Designed using high-performance core materials and optimized winding techniques, these components deliver excellent inductance stability, low losses, and effective suppression of electrical noise and harmonics.

How Does an Inductor Work?

Like transformers they usually consist of a coil and a magnetic core but there is often only one winding.  In most transformers it is desirable to minimize the energy stored in the core and high permeabilities are beneficial.  However, an inductor needs to store energy and lower permeabilities become necessary.

For this reason, it is usual to gap the core and this also serves to stabilize the inductance.  If the necessary gap is large fringing effects can cause problems.

Where the fringing flux extends into the winding high localized winding losses can occur.  It is then necessary for the single gap to be replaced with 2 or more smaller gaps or to be fully distributed as is achieved with iron powder cores.

Inevitably inductors have stray capacitance and this may need to be taken into account in some circuits. As the inductor is only inductive below resonance, the self-resonant frequency may be an important design consideration.

Different Types of Inductors

• Common mode chokes
• EMC suppression chokes
• PF chokes
• Switch mode power supply inductors
• Smoothing choes
• Saturable reactors
• Power inductors
• Ac chokes
• DC chokes
• Swining chokes
• Saturable chokes
• Flyback inductors
• Single winding inductors for SMPS
• Coupled inductors for multiple output SMPS
• Ignition coils
• EMI suppression inductors – differential and common mode