Unveiling the Microworld Inside Magnetic Materials via Circuit Models

The progress made in wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors has resulted in rapid miniaturization and increased efficiency of power converters. However, the improvements in magnetic components, such as inductors and transformers, have not kept pace with these advancements [1] , [2] , [3] . Although advances in WBG devices, novel topologies, control schemes, and hardware fabrications have greatly improved circuit efficiency and power density, the bottleneck now lies with magnetic components [4] , with magnetics accounting for more than 30% of the cost and more than 30% of the loss in almost all power converters [5] . Magnetics design has become a critical issue for power electronics as trends towards high efficiency and high power-density.