Common-mode choke

In ae off-line applications the common-mode choke is typically used and its design procedure can be found in Appendix E. The Alters resemble pi Alters, but are actually bi-directional L-C Alters. The important function is to Alter the noise generated by the switcher before it exits via the input power lines. 

Once the component values have been calculated, the physical construction of the transformer and the PCB layout become critical for the effectiveness of the filter stage. Magnetic coupling due to stray inductive pick-up of high-frequency noise by the traces and components can circumvent the filter all together. Added to this is the fact that the common-mode filter choke looks more and more capacitive above its self-resonance frequency. The net result is the designer needs to be concerned about the high-frequency behavior of the filter typically above 20 to 40 MHz. 

Sometimes the high-frequency attenuation is insufficient to meet the specifications and a third pole needs to be added to the EMI filter. This filter is typically a differential-mode filter and will share the Y capacitors from the common-mode filter. Its corner frequency is typically the same as the commonmode filter. This filter is made up of a separate choke on each power line, and is placed between the input rectifiers and the common-mode filter. 

A systematic study by Herzer [44] on the effect of Si content on the field induced Ku in the nanocrystalline Fe-Si-B-Nb-Cu alloys indicated that Ku is mainly induced in the crystallites. By appropriate choice of alloy composition and annealing conditions, transverse field annealing of nanocrystalline Fe-Si-B-Nb-Cu alloys allows to induce anisotropies in the range of Au 5 - 100 J/m3. This corresponds to initial permeabilities of about fii 104 - 2 x 105. They perfectly cover the needs of applications like common mode chokes or earth leakage circuit breakers [45] which require high permeabilities. 

The combination of the above factors has rendered the nanocrystalline solution competitive, not only with amorphous Co-based alloys, but also with classical crystalline alloys and ferrites. The consequence is a steadily increasing level of applications in magnetic cores for ground fault interrupters, common mode chokes and high frequency transformers. Fig. 14 shows some typical examples. The worldwide production rate meanwhile approaches an estimated 1000 tons/year, and the trend is increasing. The only drawback of the nanocrystalline material appears to be the embrittlement that occurs upon crystallization, which requires final shape annealing and, thus, restricts application mainly to toroidally wound cores. 

Note The reader is cautioned that there are several widely used but confusing symbols for the CM choke found in schematics in related literature. But whatever the symbol, as long as it is meant to serve as a common mode choke, the direction of the windings must be as shown for the toroid in Figure 10-1. 

Theoretically, there is no need for any air gap in a common mode choke, because the flux due to the line current is expected to cancel out completely. In practice, it doesn t fully, mainly due to slight differences in the individual winding arrangement (despite the equal number of turns). At a minimum, this causes the core to get dc-biased in one direction, and thereby cause an imbalance in the inductance it presents to the two lines. This would expectedly degrade the EMI performance, but in extreme cases, the core may even saturate. Note that core saturation in the filter is clearly not a catastrophic event (like the saturation of the main inductor/transformer of the converter can be), but since it is accompanied by severely worsening EMI-suppression efficacy, we need to prevent that too. Therefore, as in a forward converter transformer, a small air gap is usually present, even in a CM choke. 

Fe73.5Cu1Nb3Si15.5B7 and comparable, low remanence soft magnetic materials used for common mode choke cores [3.23]... 

Fig.4.3-32 Frequency dependence of permeability, (t, and the relative loss factor, /x"/ /xp, for nanocrystalline Fe73.5Cu1Nb3Si15.5B7 and comparable, low remanence soft magnetic materials used for common mode choke cores [3.23]...

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