Enhanced Permeability of Fe-Based Amorphous Powder Cores Realized through Selective Incorporation of Carbonyl Iron Powders at Inter-Particle Voids

In this study, we demonstrate a hybrid multimodal soft magnetic composite (SMC) comprising gas-atomized spherical amorphous powder (AP) and carbonyl-iron powder (CIP), and present its enhanced electromagnetic properties. CIP is selectively incorporated into voids between AP, and deforms during compression, effectively reducing the pores, resulting in high packing density of the core, where CIP magnetically bridges AP and helps magnetic domain rotation much efficiently. The hybrid SMC with the addition of 20 wt.% CIP showed constant effective permeability of 57 up to 1 MHz, a remarkable 63% increase compared with the AP core, while DC bias superimposing retention level of 61% was secured with the help of high magnetization of CIP. In addition, the effect of SiO2 surface insulation, prepared by the sol-gel process, on the high-frequency magnetic properties of hybrid SMCs, was also evaluated. It is thus revealed that the high-frequency dynamic loss of the hybrid core, originating from intra-particle eddy current loss and anomalous loss component, and inter-particle eddy currents are negligibly small. We believe that our approach using AP/CIP multimodal hybrid SMCs is an effective way of achieving high permeability as well as high DC bias characteristics at high frequencies. This process will be highly beneficial for the miniaturization of power inductors.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates a hybrid multimodal soft magnetic composite (SMC) with gas-atomized spherical amorphous powder (AP) and carbonyl-iron powder (CIP) that shows enhanced electromagnetic properties. The addition of CIP into voids between AP reduces pores and increases packing density, resulting in higher permeability and DC bias retention levels. The insulation on the surface also plays a role in improving high-frequency magnetic properties of the hybrid SMCs.