IHLP® Surface-Mount Power Inductors

The IHLP inductor uses a unique technology that was developed and refined by Vishay. Rather than winding magnet wire on a soft magnet core to produce an inductor, the IHLP inductor starts with a coil of wire and soft magnetic powdered iron is pressed around and inside the coil to provide a 'composite' one-piece inductor.

The wire coil is attached internally to a lead frame which is also embedded in the powdered iron body and provides robust, surface-mount terminations. The IHLP concept provides a low-profile, high-current, efficient inductor for use as an energy storage inductor in DC/DC converters, or a high-current noise filter for eliminating EMI in noisy motor-control or pulse-width modulated applications.

The IHLP is one of the most efficient power inductors on the market today and has several major advantages over other conventionally wound inductors technologies. The first advantage is the low-saturation performance with DC current. When DC current is applied to a magnetic core inductor the inductance drops. For some inductors, this drop in inductance is dramatic. As the applied DC current increases on an IHLP, IHLP saturation curve (inductance drop) is very gradual and almost linear. There is no hard saturation knee that is characteristic of ferrite inductors, allowing the IHLP to operate where there are high-current transient conditions without the fear of a 'hard' saturation that would otherwise result in very low inductance.

The IHLP also has excellent temperature stability for both inductance and saturation. Over the full operating range of the IHLP inductor, the inductance only changes about 100 ppm/°C. The saturation curve also is stable over temperature. This allows the designer to be confident of the IHLP performance no matter what the operating temperature.

The IHLP is also available in four different materials, depending on applications. One material can operate up as an energy storage inductor with low core loss up 5 MHz. Other versions of the IHLP can operate continuously at temperatures up to +180°C without any effects of aging.

All IHLP inductors are designed and built to the AEC-Q200 automotive standard.

Nine surface-mount sizes (footprints) as small as 3 mm² with profiles down to 1.0 mm are available along with footprints up to 22 mm² which can handle over 100 A of current. There are many choices of inductance values, profiles, and materials in each IHLP footprint.

When it comes to size, reliability, and performance, the IHLP inductor is the best choice for power inductor applications from 0.1 µH to 150 µH.