3.

Magnetic Materials
3.1 Definitions and General Relations

Although magnetism has been known since ancient times, the connection between electricity
and magnetism was not discovered until the early 19th century. The electromagnetic force (emf) is
one of the fundamental forces of nature. The emf is responsible for the functioning of a large number
of devices that are important to modern civilization including radio, television, cellular telephones,
computers, and electric machinery. The emf is caused by an electromagnetic field that is described by
two quantities, the electric field and the magnetic field, both of which can vary in space and time.
Magnetism can create a force between magnetic materials depending on their magnetic fields.
Magnetic fields can be produced by moving charged particles in electromagnets (e.g., electrons
flowing through a coil of wire connected to a battery) or in permanent magnets (spinning electrons
within the atoms generate the field).
Why are some materials very magnetic and others not? What materials are suitable for
permanent magnets? What materials are suitable for the cores of transformers? Figure 3.1a shows the
magnetic flux lines or lines of force on a permanent bar magnet. The magnetic field is much stronger
at the poles than anywhere else. The direction of the field lines is from the North Pole to the South
Pole, and the external magnetic field lines never cross.

Electromagnetism is a magnetic effect due to electric currents. When a compass is placed in close
proximity to a wire carrying an electrical current, the compass needle will turn until it is at a right
angle to the conductor. The compass needle lines up in the direction of a magnetic field around the
wire. It has been found that wires carrying current have the same type of magnetic field that exists
around a magnet, as shown in Fig. 3.1b. One can say that an electric current induces a magnetic field
and the field is proportional to the current, I. In Fig. 3.2, the “rings”represent the magnetic lines of
force existing around a wire that carries an electric current I. The magnetic field is strongest directly
around the wire, and extends outward from the wire, gradually decreasing in intensity. The direction
of a magnetic field can be predicted by use of the right-hand rule. According to the right-hand rule,
the right hand is placed around the wire that is carrying the current and the thumb follows the
direction of current flow. Then the fingers will show the direction of the magnetic field around the
conductor. In the case where the wire is looped into a coil a little magnetic field wraps around each
wire and, by combining each wire turn, the coil magnetic flux (Φ) is created. It was found by
experimentation that if a wire is wound in the form of a coil, the total magnetic field around the coil is
magnifed. This is because the magnetic fields of the turns add up to make one large flux flow,
resulting in a magnetic field. The maximum torque acting a coil in a magnetic field is given by

maximum torque = N·I·S·B (3.1)

where N is number of turns, S the cross sectional area of the coil, I current through the coil and B the
flux density.
The maximum value is when the magnetic flux density is at right angles to the coil. The quantity
N·I·S is called the magnetic dipole moment of the coil. For a single current loop the magnetic
moment is m  I  S . (3.2)
The magnetic moment or magnetic dipole moment is a measure of the strength of a magnetic source.
The magnetic moment can be considered to be a vector quantity with direction perpendicular to the
current loop in the right-hand-rule direction.

The electrons in an atom can be considered to be in orbit round the nucleus. For one electron
in such an orbit this is rather like a current in a single turn coil and so we can consider there to be a
magnetic dipole moment. In addition to orbiting a nucleus, the electron can also be considered to be
spinning. If we consider the electron to be a small charged sphere then the rotation of charge on the

1
surface of the sphere at the equators will be like a single turn current loop and also produce a
magnetic moment. For atoms in solids the main source of magnetism is the spin motion of the
electrons since the dipole moments produces by the orbital motions tend to cancel each other out.

In a block of material there will be many atoms and so it is useful to talk of the magnetic

dipole moment per unit volume. M  m 

IS [A/m] (3.3)
Volume Volume

The Bohr magneton is the natural unit for expressing the electron magnetic dipole moment
β=9,27·10-24 Am2. For example the magnetic moment of one iron atom is 4β and of one nickel atom is
2β.
The flux density B in a material can be regarded as the sum of the flux density in free space
and the flux density due to the magnetization of the material.

B   0  H  J   0  H  M    0  r H (3.4)

Where H is the applied magnetic field strength, J [T]is called the magnetic polarisation. This is due to
the magnetic moments in the material. M can be considered t be internally produced magnetic field
strength, and is thus called the intensity of magnetization. Thus J=μ0M where μ0 = 4π·10-7 [H/m] is
the vacuum magnetic permeability. The term μr is named relative permeability of the material.

M
HM 1  1 m
  (3.5)
r
H H

The term M/H is called the magnetic susceptibility. It states how susceptible to magnetization a
material is.

Materials can be grouped into three general categories:

- diamagnetic materials Diamagnetism is a form of magnetism that is only exhibited by a substance

in the presence of an externally applied magnetic field. Diamagnetic materials have a relative
magnetic permeability that is less than 1, thus a magnetic susceptibility which is less than 0, and are
therefore repelled by magnetic fields. However, since diamagnetism is such a weak property its
effects are not observable in every-day life. Materials that are said to be diamagnetic are those which
are usually considered as "non magnetic", and include water, most organic compounds such as oil
and plastic, and many metals such as mercury, gold and bismuth.
- paramagnetic materials Paramagnetism is a form of magnetism which occurs only in the presence
of an externally applied magnetic field. Paramagnetic materials are attracted to magnetic fields, hence
have a relative magnetic permeability slightly greater than unity (or, equivalently, a positive magnetic
susceptibility). However, unlike ferromagnets which are also attracted to magnetic fields,
paramagnets do not retain any magnetisation in the absence of an externally applied magnetic field.
The following are some examples of paramagnetic elements: Aluminium Al, Barium Ba, Oxygen.

- ferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic materials which have relative permeabilities considerably

greater than 1. Ferromagnetics are metals and ferrimagnetics are ceramics. These are magnetic
materials.

Since the relative permeability of dia and paramagnetics is reasonably independent of the value of B,
the graphs of flux density B against magnetizing field straingth H are straight lines with a constant
slope. Magnetic materials have large relative permeabilities which depend on the value of B,. The
graphs B versus H are hysteresis loops like in Fig.3.5.

2
Ferromagnetics materials have very high values of relative permeability. Iron, nickel, cobalt
are examples of ferromagnetic materials. Ferromagnetic materials exhibit a long-range ordering
phenomenon at the atomic level which causes the atomic magnetic moments to line up parallel with
each other in a region called Weiss domain. Within the Weiss domain, the magnetization is intense,
but in a bulk sample the material will usually be demagnetized because the many domains will be
randomly oriented with respect to one another. Each domain is spontaneously magnetized to
saturation, but the direction of magnetization varies from domain to domain. The net vector sum of all
the domains therefore produces a total magnetization of near zero. A small externally imposed
magnetic field, say from a solenoid, can cause the magnetic domains to line up with each other. The
magnetic flux density in the material will then be increased by a large factor i.e. relative permeability
for the material compared to the magnetic flux density in vacuum. All ferromagnets have a maximum
temperature where the ferromagnetic property disappears as a result of thermal agitation. This
temperature is called the Curie temperature.
The size of these oriented domains is in the range of 10-3 to 10-5 mm including a volume of about 106
to 109 atoms. The orientation is related to the crystal structure of the material. The boundaries
between the domains are called Bloch walls.

Some materials have dipoles which though they align themselves have pointing in one direction and
half in the exactly opposite direction. Such a material is called antiferromagnetic when the dipoles are
the same size and cancel each other out. Until 10-15 years ago, it was true to say that
antiferromagnetism had no practical application. Manganese, manganese oxide, chromium are
examples of antiferromagnetic materials. Thin films on antiferromagnetic materials are now used to
provide the bias field which is used to linearize the response of some magnetoresistive reading heads
in magnetic disk drives.
In some cases the dipoles are not all the same size and do not cancel each other out, or a solid is a
mixture of different atoms for which some have dipoles which cancel out and others do not, such
materials being called ferrimagnetics or ferrites. Iron oxide, nickel iron oxide mixture, manganese
iron oxide mixture are examples of ferrimagnetics materials. Because ferrites are essentially
ceramics, they are brittle materials.

The dependence of magnetic properties on a preferred direction is called magnetic anisotropy.

Anisotropy is also of considerable practical importance because it is exploited in the design of most
magnetic materials of commercial importance. If H happens to be in an easy direction, you should see
a strong magnetization that reaches a saturation value obtained when all magnetic moments point in
the desired direction already at low field strength H. If, on the other hand, H happens to be in a hard
direction, we would expect that the magnetization only turns into the H only for large values of H.

3.2 Properties of Magnetic Materials

3.2.1 The Hysteresis Loop

Many of the characteristic properties of a magnetic material are displayed in curves of B (or M)
against H. If the material is initially unmagnetised, then increasing H from 0 gives an S-shape
magnetization curve OPQS in Fig. 3.8. Thus, the sample in Fig. 3.8 consists of four Weiss domains,
initially separated from each other by Bloch walls. If a magnetic field is applied in the direction of
+H, that domain will grow whose direction of magnetization is closest to the field direction and the
domains will shrink if their magnetization is opposed to the field. For small applied fields, the
movement of the walls is reversible, i.e., on reducing the applied field to zero, the original domain
configuration will be obtained (region OP). Beyond P reduction of H from some point Q causes the
path QQ’ to be followed. If H is continuously reversed through amplitude QQ’, a minor hysteresis

3
loop is described. Beyond a certain field the movement of the walls is irreversible, and eventually
near the knee of the magnetization curve all the domain walls have been swept away by the applied
field. The sample is not yet in the saturated state since the direction of M is not quite the same as the
direction of the applied field. However, a small increase in the strength of the applied field finally
achieves the saturated state by rotating the magnetization of the whole sample into the field direction.
The biggest loop SS’ called simply the hysteresis loop is obtained when the amplitude of H is large
enough to cause saturation of the magnetization. When all the domains are in the same direction the
material is saturated. The flux density Bs is then a maximum. When the field strength is reduced to 0
the domains do not all become unaligned and the material retains a permanent flux density. Reversing
the direction of the applied fields strats the growth of domains in this reverse direction. At field
strength –Hc the flux density is reduced to 0 since there are as many domains in one direction as
another. Further increase in this reverse direction field strength results in further growth of the
domains in the field direction until the saturation in the reverse direction is achieved. When the field
is reduce to 0 a residual flux density –Br in the reverse direction remains. Applying the field in the
initial direction results in domains align in that direction growing until saturation is again achieved
and the cycle is complete. If at any point T small reversals of H are made, subsidiary loops like TT’
are followed. The demagnetization curve RTC’ gives the basic information required for permanent
magnet design. On removing the applied field, the sample does not retrace the magnetization curve,
and when the applied field is zero, we can see that a considerable amount of magnetization remains.
Appropriately, this is referred to as the remanent state, and Br is the remanent flux density. By
reversing the original direction of the applied field domains reappear and the magnetization is
eventually reduced to zero at the coercive field, Hc. It should be noticed that, at Hc, although the net
magnetization is clearly zero, the individual domains may be magnetized in directions that are
different from those at the starting point. The intercept of the hysteresis loop on the B axis (i.e. H=0)
is called the remanence B, and the intercept on the H axis (B=0) is the coercivity Hc.

In some cases it is necessary to demagnetize the magnetic material. Removal of remanence may be
accomplished in several ways. The random orientation of the magnetic domains can be achieved most
effectively by heating the material above its Curie temperature. The Currie temperature is 770˚C for
iron, 358˚C for nickel, 250-600˚C for ferrites. When steel is heated above its Curie temperature, it
will lose its magnetic properties. When it is cooled back down, it will go through a reverse
transformation and will contain no residual magnetic field. The material should also be placed with its
long axis in an east-west orientation to avoid any influence of the Earth's magnetic field. It is often
inconvenient to heat a material above it Curie temperature to demagnetize it, so another method that
returns the material to a nearly unmagnetized state is commonly used. Subjecting the component to a
reversing and decreasing magnetic field will return the dipoles to a nearly random orientation
throughout the material. This can be accomplished by pulling a component out and away from a coil
with AC passing through it. The same can also be accomplished using an electromagnetic yoke with
AC selected. Also, many stationary magnetic particle inspection units come with a demagnetization
feature that slowly reduces the AC in a coil in which the component is placed. Industry standards
usually require that the magnetic flux be reduced to less than 3 gauss (104 gauss = 1 Tesla (T),) after
completing a magnetic particle inspection.

3.2.2 The Magnetic Permeability

The relative permeability of magnetic materials increases as the magnetizing field increases, reaches a
maximum, and then decreases. Pure iron and some alloys have relative permeabilities of 100,000 or
more. Since there are several versions of relative permeability depending on conditions the index is
generally removed and replaced by other symbols.

4
INITIAL PERMEABILITY
The initial permeability is measured in a closed magnetic circuit (ring core) using a very low field
strength. Initial permeability is dependent on temperature and frequency.

1B
i   H (3.6)
0 H 0

INCREMENTAL PERMEABILITY
The permeability observed when an alternating magnetic field is superimposed on a static bias field, is
called the incremental permeability.
1 B
   (3.7)
0 H H DC

If the amplitude of the alternating field is negligibly small, the permeability is then called the
reversible permeability.

AMPLITUDE PERMEABILITY
The relationship between higher field strength and flux densities without the presence of a bias field,
is given by the amplitude permeability.
a  1  Ba (3.8)
0 Ha
EFFECTIVE PERMEABILITY
If the air-gap is introduced in a closed magnetic circuit, magnetic polarization becomes more difficult.
As a result, the flux density for a given magnetic field strength is lower. The relative permeability are
dependent by frequency, temperature. Effective permeability is dependent on the dimensions of air-
gap and circuit, if lg<<lm. In this way the effective permeability of the core with air gap is
independent on the external factors.

μe≈ lm/lg (3.9)

This simple formula is a good approximation only for small air-gaps. For longer air-gap some flux
will cross the gap outside its normal area (stray flux).

COMPLEX PERMEABILITY
A coil consisting of windings on a soft magnetic core will never be an ideal inductance with a phase
angle of 90°. There will always be losses of some kind, causing a phase shift.

For this reason permittivity is often treated as a complex function of the frequency of the magnetic
field    '  j   '' . (3.10)
r r r

The impedance of an inductor with magnetic

'
core
''
is
Z  j     r  L0  j    (  r  j   r )  L0 
'


'' (3.11)
 j    r  L0    r  L0  j    Ls  Rs

It is observed that impedance of the real inductor with magnetic core is equivalent with inductance
Ls= μ’r L0 in series with resistance Rs=ωμ”r L0, like in Fig. 3.11.

5
3.2.3 Magnetic Losses

There are two main sources of loss in magnetic materials. There is hysteresis loss due to the magnetic
hysteresis of the material. And there are eddy current losses, due to the eddy currents induced due to
the large changes in magnetic induction. Theoretical derivations indicate that the hysteresis loss
should increase linearly with an increase in excitation frequency, while the eddy current loss should
increase as the square of the frequency.

Hysteresis Loss
Consider the hysteresis loop obtained for an iron ring of mean circumference l and a sectional area S
and wound with a coil of N turns. If the current through the coil at some instant is i then the magnetic
field strength H is H= N·i / l. Suppose this magnetic field strength to correspond to point P on the B-H
graph. If now the magnetic field is increased by a small amount in a time Δt the e.m.f. induced in the
coil from this change is

B  S
u e  N (3.12)
t
The applied voltage needed to neutralize this e.m.f. is u = -ue. Therefore the power supplied at this
instant to the magnetic field is :
B
piuiNS (3.13)
t

The energy that has to be supplied in the time Δt is:

W  p  t  i  N  S  B  
(3.14)
 H  S  B  l  H  B   S  l 

Sl is the volume of the material, hence the energy supplied per unit volume is w = H·ΔB, the
area of the strip shown shaded in the hysteresis loop in Fig. 3.12. We can consider the entire loop
divided into small strips and so the total energy/volume needed to complete a loop is area enclosed by
the hysteresis loop. : Wh = SCHM. This is the energy loss during one cycle of the magnetizing current.
The power hysteresis loss is

Ph  Wh V  f (3.15)

The larger the area of the hysteresis loop, the more loss per cycle. Hysteresis loss increases with
higher frequencies as more cycles are undergone per unit time.

Eddy current losses

They occur whenever the magnetic material is electrically conductive. Most ferromagnetic materials
contain iron, a metal that has fairly low resistivity (roughly 10 -7 Ω m). The problem is intuitively
obvious if you consider that the magnetic field is contained within a 'circuit' or loop formed by the
periphery of the core in the same way as it is contained within a turn on the windings. Around that
periphery a current will be induced in the same way as it is in an ordinary turn which is shorted at its
ends. The induction of eddy currents within the core causes a resistive loss. The higher the resistance
of the core material the lower the loss.
Eddy current loss can be minimized in a number of ways. A common technique to reduce the eddy
current loss is to use thinner laminations. In any resistive circuit the power is proportional to the
square of the applied voltage. The induced voltage is itself proportional to f·B and so the eddy losses
are proportional to f2·B2. The flux is also related to the size of the loop. Fig 3.13 shows how the idea

6
of lamination is used to reduce the power losses caused by eddy currents in mains transformers. The
same principle applies to motors and generators too. Using a solid iron core (as in cross-section B)
results in a large circulating current. So, instead, the core is made up of a stack of thin (~0.5
millimetre) sheets (cross section C). Here I have shown only four laminations but there will normally
be many more. The lines of magnetic flux can still run around the core within the plane of the
laminations. The situation for the eddy currents is different. The surface of each sheet carries an
insulating oxide layer formed during heat treatment. This prevents current from circulating from one
lamination across to its neighbors. Clearly, the current in each lamination will be less than the very
large current we had with the solid core, but there are more of these small currents. So have we really
won? The answer is yes, for two reasons. Power loss (the reduction of which is our aim) is
proportional to the square of induced voltage. Induced voltage is proportional to the rate of change of
flux, and each of our laminations carries one quarter of the flux. So, if the voltage in each of our four
laminations is one quarter of what it was in the solid core then the power dissipated in each lamination
is one sixteenth the previous value. But wait; it gets better. Look at the long thin path that the eddy
current takes to travel round the lamination. Suppose we made the laminations twice as thin (we
halved d1). The path length of the current isn't much changed; it's still about 2×d2. However, the
width of the path has halved and therefore its resistance will double and so the current will be halved.
The bottom line is that eddy current loss is inversely proportional to the square of the number of
laminations. To a good approximation, the eddy current losses are proportional to the square of the
lamination thickness. Therefore, significant gains in efficiency can be obtained with very thin
laminations. Of course, thinner laminations result in increased product costs. This idea of dividing up
the iron into thin sections is carried a stage further in the iron dust cores. New materials attempting to
exploit this effect are polymer-bonded composite materials. These materials consist of small grains of
iron bonded together by polymers or resins. Because the thickness of the grains is very small, the eddy
current losses in these materials are quite small. However, there is considerable working of the grains
in pressing these materials into a desired shape, and the hysteresis losses in these materials are large.
To date, the large hysteresis losses have prohibited these materials from usage at 50 Hz and
comparable frequencies. However, these materials became more efficient at a frequencies
approaching a few hundred hertz due to minimal eddy current losses. These cores can function at
several megahertz but their permeability is lower than solid iron.
What is needed, then, is some method of increasing the resistance of the core to current flow without
inhibiting the flow of magnetic flux. In mains transformers this is achieved by alloying the iron with
about 3% of silicon. This lifts the resistivity to 4.5×10-7 Ω m from 10-7 Ω m. This material is called
“transformer iron”. Further increase in silicon concentration impairs the steel's mechanical properties,
causing difficulties for rolling. First, the addition of silicon to the iron will increase the resisitivity of
the steel, which reduces the magnitude of the eddy currents, and thus, the eddy current loss.
Iron losses should be between about 1 and eight watts per kilogram at 50Hz and 1.5T for good
transformer steel.

The phase shift caused by magnetic losses is given by:

Pa
tg  m  (3.16)
Pr

δm is called loss angle.

The loss factor tgδm is defined as the ratio of the, energy dissipated to the energy stored in the
magnetic material.

A real magnetic material can be represented by a loss free inductor with either a parallel or series
resistor giving the power dissipation.

7
Figures 3.14 and 3.15 show the resulting equivalent circuits and phasor diagram for a real magnetic
represented by a resistor in parallel or in series with a loss free inductor, when an alternating voltage
is applied. The current ILs trough the inductor is 90˚ out of phase with the current IRs through the
resistor, in the case of equivalent series circuit. The current I is thus at an angle δm displaced from
what it would have been if the inductor had no losses.

From the phasor diagram,

tg m  Pa  URS  I  U Rs  Rs (3.17)

Pr U Ls  I U Ls   Ls

Similar in the case of parallel equivalent circuit,

Pa
tg m  U  I Rp  I Rp   Lp
  (3.18)
Pr U  I Lp I Lp Rp

For small loss angle Lp≈Ls and Rs<<Rp.

For inductors used in filter applications, the quality factor (Q) is often used as a measure of
performance. It is defined as: Qδm = 1/tgδm .

For calculations on inductors and also to characterize frequency ferrites, the series representations is
generally used. In some applications e.g. signal transformers, the use of the parallel representation is
more convenient.

2.3 Technical Materials

What kind of hystereses curve do I need for the application I have in mind? Lets look at two
"paradigmatic" applications: A transformer core and a magnetic memory. The transformer core is
ferromagnetic in order to "transport" a large magnetic flux B produced by the primary coil to the
secondary coil. What I want is that the induced flux B follows the primary field H as closely as
possible. In other words: There should be no hystereses loop - just a straight line, as shown in Fig.
3.16. The ideal curve, without any hystereses, does not exist. What you get is something like the curve
shown for a real soft magnetic material - because that is what we call a material with a kind of slender
hystereses curve and thus small values of coercivity and remanence If we switch on a positive field H
and then go back to zero again, a little bit of magnetization is left. For a rather small reverse field, the
magnetic flux reverses, too - the flux B follows H rather closely, if not exactly. Hystereses losses are
small, because the area enclosed in the hystereses loop is small. But some losses remain, and the
"transformer core" industry will be very happy if you can come up with a material that is just 1 % or 2
% softer" than what they have now. Beside losses, you have another problem: If you vary H
sinusoidally, the output will be a somewhat distorted sinus, because B does not follow H linearly. This
may be a problem when transforming signals.
The term soft when applied to magnetic materials comes originally from the magnetic properties
associated with pure iron. Such material was mechanically soft. However, now the term soft magnetic
material is applied to those magnetic materials which regardless of weather they are mechanically
soft or not have:
- high permeability, so that high magnetization can be achieved.
- a low coercive field, so that only a small magnetic field strength is required to demagnetize or
reverse the direction of the magnetic flux in material
- a small remanence so that only a little magnetism is retained in the absence of the field

8
 - a small area enclosed by the hysteresis loop so that little energy is lost per cycle.

Such soft magnetic materials are widely used for electrical applications like inductor and
transformer cores.

A soft magnetic material will obviously not make a good permanent magnet, because its remaining
magnetization (its remanence) after switching off the magnetic field H is small. But a permanent
magnet is what we want for a magnetic storage material. Here we want to induce a large permanent
magnetization by some external field (produced by the "writing head" of our storage device) that stays
intact for many years if needs be. It should be strong enough - even so it is contained in a tiny area of
the magnetic material on the tape or the storage disc - to produce a measurable effect if the reading
head moves over it. It should not be too strong, however, because that would make it too difficult to
erase it if we want to overwrite it with something else. In short, it should look like in Fig. 3.17. We
can define what we want in terms of coercivity and remance. Ideally, the hystereses curve is very
“square”. At some minimum field, the magnetization is rather large and does not change much
anymore. If we reverse the field direction, not much happens for a while, but as soon as we move
above slightly above the coercivity value, the magnetization switches direction completely.
Ferromagnetic losses are unavoidable, we simply must live with them. Such materials are known as a
hard magnetic materials, because originally it applied to alloys od iron which were mechanically
hard. Now regardless of weather a material is mechanically hard or not a material is said to be
magnetically hard if it has the properties of
- high remenence so that high degree of magnetism is retained in the absence of magnetic field
- high coercive field so that it is difficult to demagnetize the material
- a large area enclosed by the hysteresis loop, this being a consequence of it having a high
remanence and high coercive force and this is a vital feature since high energy is then needed
to demagnetise.

Such hard magnetic materials are widely used for permanent magnets and the magnetic
recording.

An hard magnetic material is a mixture of small crystals and particles of a variety of different
materials while a soft material is likely to be a less complex mixture and composed of large crystals.

Inductor and transformer cores materials

The magnetic core is a key component in electrical devices such as electromagnets, transformers and
inductors. Its role is to increase the strength and effect of magnetic fields produced by electric
currents. The properties of the device will depend on the following factors:
- the geometry of the magnetic core.
- the amount of air gap in the magnetic circuit.
- the properties of the core material (especially permeability and hysteresis).
- the operating temperature of the core.
- whether the core is laminated to reduce eddy currents.

Some examples materials used for magnetic cores are, silicon steel alloys (Fe+Si), permalloy
(Fe+Ni), soft ferrites (Ni+Zn or Mn+Zn).

A transformer generally consists of one or more coils (winding) of conducting wire, wound on a
former (bobbin) that surrounds the centre limb (sometimes all limbs) of a circuit of magnetic material

9
(core). The winding wires are insulated and the core is made from thin sheet steel plates known as
laminations (this reduces 'eddy current' losses). The assembly is held together by metal cheeks known
as clamps, these clamps are held in place by long screws that are insulated from the rest of the
structure (again to limit eddy currents). The winding wires are either made off to terminals mounted
on the clamps or the wire may leave the coil by 'flying leads'.
The Fig. 3.18 shows all the elements used in the construction of a typical transformers. Common types
of lamination are known by the shape of alphabetic letter that they form. The most common type is the
'E' + 'I', shown in Fig. 3.19.. The laminations are often oxidized to form a surface film of oxide that
has a higher resistance than plain steel, thus isolating each layer to a certain extent and reducing eddy
currents that may occur perpendicular to the plane of lamination. Sometimes one or both sides of a
lamination are sprayed with lacquer for insulation purposes. Laminations are mostly used at power
distribution frequencies of 50 Hz and audio frequencies, if higher frequencies (up to a hundred or so
kHz) are envisaged then ferrite or other sintered iron oxide compounds are used to make solid split
cores. The laminations when assembled form an interleaved 'stack' or 'core'. The interleaving is
usually to avoid any gaps in the magnetic circuit as air is much less permeable to magnetic flux than
iron and steel. The magnetic flux runs around the two side limbs and combines in the centre limb
which is twice the cross sectional area of a single side limb, thus keeping flux density constant. The
flux lines that are indicated in red in the diagram at right would follow a slightly tighter path near the
corner fixing holes. It should be noticed that there is practically zero flux in the centre of the long side
and fixing holes or notches are common at this point. The 'holes' in the core are known as 'windows'
or 'window spaces' and in an assembled component they are filled by coils wound on a bobbin.
There are two types of coil formers or bobbin, known as 'plain' shown in Fig. 3.21a or 'split' shown in
Fig. 3.21b.

Bobbins these days are mainly injection moulded in plastic, but larger ones often have paper board
cheeks. Occasionally, transformers are constructed with two or more independent bobbins, each
having it's own winding(s). This method of construction is rare, but has it's uses at very high voltages
(above 3,000 volts).
The windings or coils that are wound around these bobbins can be either single coils or multiple ones.
Single coils are a type known as 'Auto Transformers'. Multiple coil types are known as 'double
wound' and the windings fall into two subdivisions. 'Primary' and 'Secondary' generally there is only
one primary although it may be divided into two or more portions. Secondary windings may be of any
number. Coils may be wound side by side on split bobbins or may be wound on top of one another
with a suitable insulation between. Generally the primary or input winding is completed first as the
innermost coil then layers of plastic or paper are placed over the completed primary and this is then
used as a base upon which further windings are made.
In Fig. 3.22 two coils are shown, the primary and the secondary coils. An alternating current flowing
in the primary coil will cause an alternating flux in the core which in turn couples with the secondary
coil inducing an alternating voltage in it. If this alternating voltage is applied to a load then an
alternating current will result. The ratio of turns between the primary and the secondary is
proportionate (minus losses) to the voltages on primary and secondary. The number of turns per volt
is a function of the cross sectional area of the magnetic circuit, the duty cycle and the allowable
temperature rise. Eddy current losses are constant and the fraction of the primary current that is due to
this cause is known as the 'magnetising current'. The resistive losses in the windings, due to the
current flowing is generally known as 'copper loss' and is proportionate to the percentage of full load
that the device is run at. In transformers that have one winding on top of another there is sometimes a
single turn of copper or aluminium foil (the ends of this turn are insulated otherwise it would be a
'shorted turn') this shield is earthed and helps to suppress interference that could be transmitted from
coil to coil.

10
Ferrimagnetic commonly used magnetic core structures are:

- toroidal core
This design is based on a circular toroid, similar in shape to a doughnut. The coil is wound through
the hole in the doughnut and around the outside, an ideal coil is distributed evenly all around the
circumference of the doughnut. This geometry will turn the magnetic field around into a full loop and
thus will naturally keep the majority of the field constrained within the core material. It makes a
highly efficient and low radiation transformer, popular in hi-fi audio amplifiers where desirable
features are: high power, small volume and minimal electromagnetic interference. It is, however,
more difficult to wind an electrical circuit around it than with a splitable core (a core made of two
elements, like two E). Automatic winding of a toroidal core requires a specific machinery.

- pair of "E" cores

Similar to using an "E" and "I" together, a pair of "E" cores will accommodate a larger coil former
and can produce a larger inductor or transformer. E-shaped core are a symmetric solutions to form a
closed magnetic system. Most of the time, the electric circuit is wound around the center leg, whose
section area is twice that of each individual outer. If an air gap is required, the centre leg of the "E" is
shortened so that the air gap sits in the middle of the coil to minimise fringing and reduce
electromagnetic interference. For example a planar “E” core, shown in Fig. 3.24, consists of two flat
pieces of magnetic material, one above and one below the coil. It is typically used with a flat coil that
is part of a printed circuit board. This design is excellent for mass production and allows a high
power, small volume transformer to be constructed for low cost. It is not as ideal as either a pot core
or toroidal core but costs less to produce.

The EQ core has a cylindrical central leg like in Fig. 3.25

- pot core
This is used for inductors and transformers. The shape of a pot core (Fig. 3.26) is round with an
internal hollow that almost completely encloses the coil. Usually a pot core is made in two halves
which fit together around a coil former (bobbin). This design of core has a shielding effect, preventing
radiation and reducing electromagnetic interference.

To facilitate calculations on a non-uniform soft magnetic cores, a set of effective dimensions

is given on each data sheet. These dimensions, effective area (Ae ), effective length(le ) and effective
volume(Ve ) define a hypothetical ring core which would have the same magnetic properties as the
non-uniform core. If the cross-sectional area of a core is non-uniform, there will always be a point
where the real cross-section is minimal and is used to calculate the maximum flux density in a core.
This value is known as Amin. A well designed ferrite core avoids a large difference between Ae and
Amin . Narrow parts of the core could saturate or cause much higher hysteresis losses. To make the
calculation of the inductance of a coil easier, the inductance factor, known as the AL value, is given in
each data sheet.
The inductance of the core is defined as:

L = N2· AL (3.19)

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Permanent magnet materials

Magnets are an important part of our daily lives, serving as essential components in everything from
electric motors, loudspeakers, computers, compact disc players, microwave ovens and the family car,
to instrumentation, production equipment, and research. Their contribution is often overlooked
because they are built into devices and are usually out of sight.
Magnets function as transducers, transforming energy from one form to another, without any
permanent loss of their own energy. General categories of permanent magnet functions are:
- mechanical to mechanical - such as attraction and repulsion.
- mechanical to electrical - such as generators and microphones.
- electrical to mechanical - such as motors, loudspeakers, charged particle deflection.
- special effects - such as magneto resistance, Hall effect devices, and magnetic resonance.

There are four classes of modern commercialized magnets, each based on their material composition.
Within each class is a family of grades with their own magnetic properties. These general classes are:
Neodymium Iron Boron, Samarium Cobalt, Ceramic, Alnico (Fe-Co-Ni-Al alloys)

NdFeB and SmCo are collectively known as Rare Earth magnets because they are both composed of
materials from the Rare Earth group of elements. Neodymium Iron Boron (general composition
Nd2Fe14B, often abbreviated to NdFeB) is the most recent commercial addition to the family of
modern magnet materials. At room temperatures, NdFeB magnets exhibit the highest properties of all
magnet materials. Samarium Cobalt is manufactured in two compositions: Sm1Co5 and Sm2Co17 -
often referred to as the SmCo 1:5 or SmCo 2:17 types. 2:17 types, with higher Hc values, offer greater
inherent stability than the 1:5 types. Ceramic, also known as ferrite magnets (general composition
BaFe2O3 or SrFe2O3) have been commercialized since the 1950s and continue to be extensively used
today due to their low cost. A special form of ceramic magnet is "flexible" material, made by bonding
ceramic powder in a flexible binder. Alnico magnets (general composition Al-Ni-Co) were
commercialized in the 1930s and are still extensively used today.

Hard materials are (alnico), hard ferrites (ferroxdur cobalt + barium), rare earth alloys (neodymium,
iron, boron).

The basis of magnet design is the B-H curve, or hysteresis loop, which characterizes each magnet
material. This curve describes the cycling of a magnet in a closed circuit as it is brought to saturation,
demagnetized, saturated in the opposite direction, and then demagnetized again under the influence of
an external magnetic field. The second quadrant of the B-H curve, commonly referred to as the
"Demagnetization Curve", describes the conditions under which permanent magnets are used in
practice. A permanent magnet will have a unique, static operating point if air-gap dimensions are
fixed and if any adjacent fields are held constant. Otherwise, the operating point will move about the
demagnetization curve, the manner of which must be accounted for in the design of the device.

The three most important characteristics of the B-H curve are the points at which it intersects the B
and H axes (at Br - the residual induction - and Hc - the coercive force - respectively), and the point at
which the product of B and H are at a maximum (BHmax - the maximum energy product). Br
represents the maximum flux the magnet is able to produce under closed circuit conditions. In actual
useful operation permanent magnets can only approach this point. Hc represents the point at which the
magnet becomes demagnetized under the influence of an externally applied magnetic field. BHmax
represents the point at which the product of B and H, and the energy density of the magnetic field into
the air gap surrounding the magnet, is at a maximum. The higher this product, the smaller need be the
volume of the magnet.

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Consider the permanent magnet shown in fig. 3.27. It is a magnetic circuit consisting of a block of
permanent magnet material, in series with soft magnetic material and an air gap. The flux through the
permanent magnet material is BmSm where Bm is the flux density in the magnetic material and Sm is
cross sectional area. This in the absence of leakage would be the flux throughout the circuit and hence
through the air gap. If however there is a leakage factor k1, then

  Bm  Sm  k1  Bg  Sg (3.20)

Where k1 = 1-20 is the leakage factor, Bg the flux density in the air gap and Sg cross sectional area of
air gap. For example the magnetic circuit in a loudspeaker is likely to have k1 values between 2 and 3.
For the flux path through the magnet the magnetomotive force is HmLm. The magnetic circuit does
not have any current carrying coil wrapped round it, thus we must have

Hm · lm =k2 · Hg · lg (3.21)

The m.m.f. for the magnet would be the m.m.f. across the air gap if the connecting pieces and the
joints between them and the permanent magnet had infinite permeability. We can allow for this not
being perfectly the case by introducing a correction factor K2. It typically lies between 1,1 and 1,3.
From relation 3.20 and 3.21 we obtain

(Bm  Hm) Vm

(Bg  Hg)  (3.22)
k1  k 2 Vg

The volume Vm of the magnetic material to achieve the required flux density Bg will be a minimum
when BmHm is a maximum. Thus in permanent magnet design an important parameter is the
maximum value of the product BH. The energy stored per unit volume of a magnetic field is ½ BH,
thus the maximum value of BH is a measure of the maximum amount of magnetic energy that can be
stored in the magnetic field. Hence equation 3.22 indicates the conditions necessary to obtain the
maximum amount of energy. The demagnetization curve tells us how well a permanent magnet is able
to retain its magnetism. Corresponding to this a B-BH graph has been drawn. The maximum value of
BH occurs at B and H values corresponding to the largest rectangle which can be drawn in the
quadrant. For a large value of the product BH there needs to be a large value of the coercive field and
remanence.

Materials for magnetic recording

The magnetic recording is a method of preserving sounds, pictures, and data in the form of electrical
signals through the selective magnetization of portions of a magnetic material. Although magnetic
recording is practiced in a wide variety of formats and serves a wide variety of applications, the
fundamental principles by which it operates are similar in all cases. The fundamental magnetic
recording configuration is illustrated in Fig. 3.28.
The recording head consists of a toroidally shaped core of soft magnetic material with a few turns of
conductor around it. The magnetic medium below the head could be either tape or disk, and the
substrate could be either flexible for tape or rigid for rigid disks. To record on the medium, current is
applied to the coil around the core of the head, causing the high-permeability magnetic core to
magnetize. Because of the gap in the recording head, magnetic flux emanates from the head and
penetrates the medium. If the field produced by the head is sufficient to overcome the coercive force
of the medium, the medium will be magnetized by the head field. Thus, a representation of the current
waveform applied to the head is stored in the magnetization pattern in the medium.

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The reading process when carried out with an inductive head is very similar to the writing process.
Readout of previously recorded information is typically accomplished by using the head to sense the
magnetic stray fields produced by the recorded patterns in the medium. The recorded patterns in the
medium cause magnetic stray fields to emanate from the medium and to flow through the core of the
head. Thus, if the medium is moved with respect to the head, the flux passing through the coil around
the head will change in a manner which is representative of the recorded magnetization pattern in the
medium. A voltage representative of the recorded information is thus induced in the coil.
In modern hard disk drives, a giant magnetoresistive (GMR) head (illustrated in Fig. 3.29) is used for
reading of data. Magnetoresistivity is a property of materials to change the value of their electrical
resistivity when an external magnetic field is applied.
The head design consists of a thin film inductive write element and a read element that consists of an
GMR sensor between two magnetic shields. The magnetic shields greatly reduce unwanted magnetic
fields coming from the disk. The GMR sensor essentially "sees" only the magnetic field from the
recorded data bit to be read. It can sense very low magnetic fields and have a very high spatial
resolution. The use of GMR heads is essential as the increased storage density and smaller magnetic
domain size in the media means that the field strength, at a specific height above the surface of the
media, has decreased. GMR sensors are composed of multiple thin films (Fig. 3.30). They have a
sensing layer which responds to external magnetic fields. In the absence of an external magnetic field,
this sensing layer will spontaneously magnetize itself parallel with the long axis of this layer, which is
parallel to the disk. A fixed magnetic field ("horizontal bias") is also applied in this direction by hard
bias films to establish a single magnetic domain in the sensing layer. This single magnetic domain
minimizes domain noise and promotes consistent reading. This sensing layer's magnetic orientation,
referenced to the disk, rotates from parallel to perpendicular when an increasing perpendicular
magnetic field ("transverse magnetic field") is applied. This field is composed of a varying external
magnetic field from the rotating disk and fixed internal magnetic fields ("transverse bias") from other
parts of the sensor. The GMR element is a spin valve type with 4 layers: an antiferromagnetic
exchange film (e.g. iron/manganese); a layer of cobalt with its direction of magnetisation pinned by
the antiferromagnetic exchange film; a layer of copper which is a spacer and a layer of nickel/iron
with its direction of magnetisation free to move under the influence of the magnetic field from the
recording media. The biasing magnetic layer magnetises the NiFe in the plane of the film and
perpendicular to the direction of magnetisation of the Co film. When the direction of magnetisation of
the NiFe moves towards the direction of magnetisation of the Co then there is a drop in resistance;
when it moves away then there is an increase in the resistance. GMR sensors are very thin. If 100,000
of these sensors, excluding leads, were stacked on top of each other, the stack would be less than one
centimeter high. In a GMR sensor, a resistance change is caused by the quantum nature of electrons.
Recording data onto a disk has obvious advantages with respect to access times, as the head can
readily be moved to the appropriate place on the disk whereas a tape would need to be rewound or
advanced. Hard disk drives are formed on a rigid substrate, usually aluminium, which is around 2mm
thick. On to the substrate are deposited several layers: an underlayer to help adhesion (~10nm nickel
phosphide); a layer of chromium (5-10nm) to control orientation and grain size of magnetic layer; the
magnetic layer (50nm PtCo with various additions of Ta, P, Ni, Cr); a protective overcoat (e.g. 10-
20nm zirconia) and finally lubricant to reduce friction and wear of the disk (e.g. a monolayer of long
chain fluorocarbons). The magnetic layer forms a cellular structure of Co-rich magnetic cells in a non-
magnetic matrix. These cells act just like particulate recording media but on a much finer scale. The
construction of a hard disk drive is shown schematically in Fig. 3.31. The disk is attached to a spindle
motor that will spin the disk; for greater storage capacity several disks can be built into a stack. Read
and write heads are attached to a swinging arm (one for each side of the disks) that can be scanned
across the disk using a coil.

A wide variety of magnetic recording media are available today. Different applications
require different media, but furthermore, in many cases the same application will be able to utilize a
variety of different competitive media. Just a decade ago, essentially all recording media consisted of

14
fine acicular magnetic particles embedded in a polymer and coated onto either flexible substrates such
as mylar for tapes or onto rigid aluminum-alloy substrates for rigid disks. Today, although such
particulate media are still widely used for tape, thin-film media have almost entirely taken over the
rigid disk business, and metal-evaporated thin-film media has been introduced into the tape
marketplace. Furthermore, many new particle types have been introduced. The most common
particulate recording media today are Fe2O3, Co surface modified Fe2O3, CrO2. All of these particles
are acicular in shape with aspect ratios on the order of 5 or 10 to 1. The particles are sufficiently small
that it is energetically most favorable for them to remain in a single domain saturated state. Because
of demagnetizing effects caused by the acicular shape, the magnetization prefers to align along the
long axis of the particle.
Smaller particle size and higher magnetisation lead to better quality recording, i.e. greater signal to
noise ratio. As the density of recording increases then the magnetic domain size decreases and so the
particle size must decrease and the coercivity of the material must increase. The cheapest and most
commonly used material is Fe2O3, while increasing quality is achieved through the use of cobalt
modified Fe2O3, chromium dioxide and, the best, pure iron. Finally, is barium hexaferrite, which has
the highest coercivity and is used for applications where the stored data must be secure and is unlikely
to require rewriting, e.g. a credit card.
Early recording heads consisted of toroids of magnetically soft ferrites, such as NiZn-ferrite and
MnZn-ferrite, with a few turns of wire around them. For high-density recording applications,
however, ferrite can no longer be used, because the saturation magnetization of ferrite is limited to
about 400 kA/m. Saturation of the pole tips of a ferrite head begins to occur when the deep gap field
in the head approaches one-half the saturation magnetization of the ferrite. Because the fields seen by
a medium are one-half to one-quarter the deep gap field, media with coercivities above about 80 kA/m
cannot be reliably written with a ferrite head. High-density thin-film disk media, metal particle media,
and metal evaporated media, therefore, cannot be written with a ferrite head.
Magnetically soft alloys of metals such as Permalloy (NiFe) and Sendust (FeAlSi) have saturation
magnetizations on the order of 800 kA/m, about twice that of ferrites, but because they are metallic
may suffer from eddy current losses when operated at high frequencies. To overcome the limitations
imposed by eddy currents, they are used in layers thinner than a skin depth at their operating
frequency. To prevent saturation of the ferrite heads, the high magnetization metals are applied to the
pole faces of the ferrite, making a so-called metal-in-gap or MiG recording. Because the layer of
metal is thin, it can furthermore be less than a skin depth, and eddy current losses do not limit
performance at high frequencies.

15