The part does not exist
The bill of materials names a custom magnetic built for the demonstration board, with no public part number and no distributor. It was never meant to be bought.
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Reference Design Magnetics
A semiconductor reference design gets you most of the way, and then calls out a transformer with a part number you cannot buy, or one that was chosen for a demonstration rather than for your product. ConverNova designs and supplies that part. Based in Madrid, Spain, engineering answer usually within 24 hours, prototypes in 4 to 8 weeks, no minimum order quantity. Send the reference design number and the schematic page, and we take it from there.
The gap in the box
The silicon is documented. The magnetics rarely are.
Three versions of the same problem, and we see all three every month.
The part exists but is wrong for you
It was chosen for a 25 degree lab bench and a fixed load. Your product runs at 85 degrees, at partial load most of the day, in a housing with no airflow.
The design has moved on
You changed the switching frequency, the input range or the power level, and the magnetic from the reference no longer suits the converter you actually built.
What we need
Send the reference, not just the part number.
The reference design document tells us more about what the magnetic has to do than any specification sheet would.
Send us your spec- The reference
- The design number or the document. Most are public, and the schematic and waveforms in them are exactly what we work from
- What you changed
- Frequency, input range, power, load profile. If nothing changed, say so, because that is useful too
- Your environment
- Ambient temperature, cooling and the enclosure. This is usually where the reference part stops being suitable
- Your constraints
- Height, footprint, keepout, terminations and the standard you qualify against
- Your volume
- Whether this is a demonstrator, a first build or a production programme changes what we would design
Named designs
The reference designs engineers bring us.
If you are evaluating one of these, the semiconductor is fully documented and the magnetic component usually is not. These are the designs we are asked about most often, with the part each one actually needs wound. Send us the reference and the operating point you are moving to, and we aim to have the first proposal back inside 24 hours.
Texas Instruments
TIDA and TIDM designs, plus the PMP series
| Reference | What it is | The magnetic it needs |
|---|---|---|
| TIDA-01604 | 6.6 kW totem pole PFC for an HEV or EV onboard charger, 98.6 percent efficiency | PFC boost inductor, sized for ripple and for saturation at the line peak |
| TIDM-02002 | 6.6 kW bidirectional CLLLC resonant dual active bridge for an onboard charger, 500 kHz | Main transformer with the leakage inductance as part of the resonant tank |
| PMP21999 | 6.6 kW bidirectional CLLLC resonant converter using a PCB winding transformer, 500 kHz | Planar transformer, where the artwork fixes the leakage inductance |
| TIDA-010054 | 10 kW bidirectional dual active bridge for level 3 EV charging, 100 kHz planar magnetics | Planar transformer plus the DAB series inductance |
| TIDA-01606 | 11 kW bidirectional three phase three level T-type inverter and PFC | Boost and output filter inductors carrying heavy DC bias |
| TIDA-010210 | 11 kW bidirectional three phase ANPC on GaN, switching at 100 kHz | Filter inductors, small because of the frequency and hot because of it too |
| TIDA-010938 | 10 kW GaN single phase string inverter with battery energy storage | Boost inductor and grid side filter inductors |
| TIDA-010933 | 1.6 kW four input bidirectional GaN microinverter with storage | Isolation transformer and input inductors, at very tight volume |
| TIDA-010966 | Bidirectional isolated dual bridge series resonant DC-DC for residential storage, 40 to 60 V | Low voltage high current transformer plus the resonant inductor |
| TIDA-011012 | 50 kW SiC based modular solid state transformer | Medium frequency cell transformer, designed for partial discharge as well as hipot |
STMicroelectronics
STEVAL and STDES boards
| Reference | What it is | The magnetic it needs |
|---|---|---|
| STDES-7KWOBC | 7 kW onboard charger: interleaved totem pole PFC and a dual full bridge LLC stage | Two 510 uH PFC inductors and the LLC transformer |
| STEVAL-DPSTPFC1 | 3.6 kW bridgeless totem pole PFC with digital control and inrush limiting | Boost inductor, and the current ripple decides its core |
| STDES-2KW5CH48V | 2.5 kW 48 V industrial battery charger: boost PFC on the L4984D into a full bridge LLC on the L6599A | PFC inductor and the LLC resonant transformer |
| STEVAL-ISA172V2 | 2 kW fully digital AC-DC: interleaved PFC into a phase shifted full bridge with ZVS | Interleaved PFC inductors, PSFB transformer and the output choke |
Infineon
EVAL and REF boards
| Reference | What it is | The magnetic it needs |
|---|---|---|
| REF-DAB11KIZSICSYS | 11 kW bidirectional CLLC resonant DC-DC on CoolSiC, for onboard and offboard charging | Resonant transformer, with the leakage inductance treated as a circuit element |
| REF-11KW-PFC-SIC-QD | 11 kW and 7.3 kW multilevel ANPC bidirectional PFC, single and three phase | Boost inductors, with the multilevel waveform changing the ripple spectrum |
| EVAL-3K3W-TP-PFC-SIC | 3.3 kW totem pole PFC on CoolSiC | Boost inductor, the part that usually sets the height of the board |
Microchip
dsPIC33 based demonstration platforms
| Reference | What it is | The magnetic it needs |
|---|---|---|
| 3.8 kW and 7.6 kW dsPIC33C totem pole | Totem pole PFC stage of an onboard charger, dsPIC33C with SiC | PFC boost inductor at two power levels off one topology |
| 11kW PFC Demonstration Application | Three phase PFC stage at 11 kW on dsPIC33 | Boost inductors, three of them, matched to each other |
| dsPIC33C 4 kW DC-DC demonstration | Isolated DC-DC stage on dsPIC33C with SiC | Isolation transformer and the output inductor |
| Two/Three-Wheeler EV Charger with CAN Control | 1.5 kW onboard charger for light EVs, with CAN control | PFC inductor and the isolation transformer, at a price sensitive volume |
ConverNova is an independent magnetics manufacturer and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of the companies above. Every designator is the trademark of its owner and is used here only to identify the design it names. Each one links to the vendor's own page so you can check the specification at source.
Straight answers
Reference designs, the usual questions.
Can you build exactly what the reference specifies?
Usually, and sometimes we will suggest you do not. A reference magnetic is
designed to make the semiconductor look good on a bench. If your operating point is
different, copying it faithfully reproduces a compromise that was never yours.
Do you work with SiC and GaN reference designs?
Yes, up to 2 MHz switching. Those are the designs where the reference magnetic
is most often the weak point, because the winding loss at those frequencies is where the
efficiency actually goes.
How fast can you turn one round?
We aim for an engineering answer inside 24 hours, and 4 to 8 weeks from an agreed design when
the raw materials are in stock. If your evaluation window is tighter, a
fast sample may be the better route.
What is the minimum order?
One, which is usually exactly how many an evaluation needs.
Start here
Send the reference design and what you changed.
There is a file field on the specification form for the schematic and the waveforms.