Coreless Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Transformers - Fundamental Characteristics and Application Potential

In this article, the fundamental concept, characteristics and application potentials of coreless printed-circuit-board (PCB) transformers are described. Coreless PCB transformers do not have the limitations associated with magnetic cores, such as the frequency limitation, magnetic saturation and core losses. In addition, they eliminate the manual winding process and its associated problems, including labor cost, reliability problems and difficulties in ensuring transformer quality in the manufacturing process. The parameters of the printed windings can be precisely controlled in modern PCB technology. Because of the drastic reduction in the vertical dimension, coreless PCB transformers can achieve high power density and are suitable for applications in which stringent height requirements for the circuits have to be met. A transformer's power density of $24W/cm^2$ has been reported in a power conversion application. When used in an isolation amplifier application, coreless PCB transformers tested so far enable the amplifier to achieve a remarkable linear frequency range of 1MHz, which is almost eight times higher than the frequency range of 120kHz in existing Integrated-Circuit products. PCB materials offer extremely high isolation voltage, typically from 15kV to 40kV, which is higher than many other isolation means such as optocouplers. It is envisaged that coreless PCB transformers can replace traditional core-based transformers in some industrial applications. Their application potentials deserve more attention and exploration.