Design of high frequency air-core inductor for DAB converter

Design of air-core inductors is not widely known. The major advantage of an air-core inductor is that it is free from iron loss and hence offers better performance than ferrite cores. This paper discusses design details of high frequency air-core inductor used in a dual active bridge (DAB) DC-DC converter for aerospace applications. The paper will serve as a useful aid for early stage researchers to design air-core inductors in a simple and effective manner. An air-core inductor was designed to test the high current devices of the DAB DC-DC converter, and another was used in the AC link of the DAB converter. Experimental results for 125V, 300A, 20 kHz operation of DAB high current devices tested with an air-core inductor of 4.17μH are provided.