Thc design and construction or a transformer thin and flexible enough to resemble and be used as a powercord is described and analyzed. Unlike earlier designs, the transformer design presented in this article has an efficiency and flux linkage that rivals those of standard transformer designs. The powercord transformer consists of a series of toroidal magnetic cores which are stacked into a long string or short magnetic circuits. This transformer can be designed to function at arbitrarily low or high frequencies; in particular, power-line frequencies (50 or 60 Hz.) are possihle. This design can, with minor modifications, be used to produce a powercord inductor as well. A manufacturing process is also presented that uses this unique design to produce transformers more easily than is conventionally possible. Because transformers are ubiquitous in electrical devices, this design has the potential to replace the bulky box-shaped transformers in hundreds of products and can be used to address practical problems of product size. weight balance, and heat generation.
By: Jason M. Jacobs, Ted Selker
Published in: RJ9536 in 1993
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