Near-Field Coupling Effect Analysis of SMD Inductor Using 3D-EM Model

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a methodology for analyzing the near-field coupling between two surface mount device (SMD) inductors using a 3-dimensional electromagnetic (3D-EM) model. To develop the 3D-EM model, we first constitute the equivalent circuit of the SMD inductor from the measured impedance and derive the loss tangent using circuit parameters. Secondly, the loss tangent using damped harmonic oscillator model is introduced to extract the effective permeability of core magnetic material in the SMD inductor. The optimization algorithm is used to compare the two loss tangents. Then the effective permeability is used in the magnetic material for the 3D-EM modeling of the SMD inductor. The validity of the proposed 3D-EM model is confirmed by comparing the impedance and S-parameters obtained from both measured and EM-simulated values for the two near-field coupled SMD inductors. Finally, the near-field coupling effects between the two adjacent SMD inductors are visualized in terms of coupling path visualization (CPV) using the proposed 3D-EM model, which demonstrates its usefulness for near-field coupling analysis.