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ISSUE: July 2011
Why Use Aluminum Wire?
by Dennis Feucht, Innovatia Laboratories, Cayo, Belize
Aluminum wire is produced by major wire companies yet it is not commonly found in the transformers and
inductors (transductors) of switching power converters. Aluminum (Al) wire has an advantage over copper (Cu)
wire at high frequencies because its conductivity is lower than copper, causing its skin depth to be greater at
the same frequency. Its conductive area is greater and thus its resistance for the same length and cross-
sectional area of wire is lower. When is it advantageous to use it? This article explores this question.
Skin Effect
For copper and aluminum wire of the type used in transductors, the ratio of Al and Cu resistivities at a typical
operating temperature of 80C is
637 . 1
131 . 2
487 . 3
C) 80 (
C) 80 (
Cu
Al
= =

p
p
.
In other words, the same wire in aluminum is about 64% higher in resistance than it would be in copper.
The density of time-varying current in a round wire is highest at the conductor surface because of the skin
effect. Current density exponentially decreases from the surface along a radial axis toward the center of the
wire. The surface current is that of the static (dc) current. One length constant, or skin depth, , defines an
annulus or ring of current from the surface of the wire to a distance of inward toward the center. If the value
of the current at the surface were uniformly distributed in this ring it would equal the total current of the
exponential distribution.
Consequently, for a given switching frequency, f
s
, and a given wire conductor of radius, r
c
, the skin effect of
increased resistance is minimized when r
c
s .
The skin depth for copper at 80C is
f
Hz mm 73.5
Cu

~ o .
For aluminum at the same temperature,
f
Hz mm 94
Al

~ o .
At the same frequency, Al skin depth is greater than Cu though its static resistivity is higher. The lower
resistance from the greater cross-sectional area of the greater of Al can overcome its greater static resistivity
to make its total (frequency-dependent) resistance less than copper. To determine the conditions for lower Al
resistance, frequency-dependent resistance equations are needed.
Frequency-Dependent Resistance Ratio, F
R
The ratio of the total (ac) resistance of a round wire at frequency, f, to its static (dc) resistance, R
0
, is
designated as
0
) (
R
f R
F
R
= .
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Then, total resistance, which includes skin effect, is
R
F R f R =
0
) ( .
The extent of the skin effect for a given conductive radius of wire can be expressed as the ratio
o
c
c
r
= .
The frequency, f

, at which = r
c
is found by solving the skin-depth equation for f;
C 80 Al, ,
Hz mm 94
C 80 Cu, ,
Hz mm 73.5
2
2

|
|
.
|

\
|

|
|
.
|

\
|

=
c
c
r
f
r
f
o
o
.
For example, a 28 AWG wire has r
c
= 0.16 mm and Cu f

= 211 kHz.
The f

values are useful as an additional column in a wire table. Given f

for each wire size and knowing the

frequency f of the current, then is proportional to 1/
f
and
o
c
f
f
= .
Given a current with f = 150 kHz in a wire of a 24 AWG with a corresponding f

= 81.15 kHz, then

36 . 1
kHz 81.15
kHz 150
= = c .
Skin-Effect F
R
An expression for F
R
can be derived for an isolated (single) round wire as the ratio
) ( /
) ( / ) (
0
0 0
f A
A
A l
f A l
R
f R
F
R
=

= =
p
p
.
At 0 Hz, the current is uniformly distributed in the cross-section of the wire and its area is
2
0 c
r A = t
At frequency, f, the conductor is reduced effectively to that of a ring of thickness with cross-sectional area
) 2 (
2
2 ) ( ) (
2 2 2
o o t o
o
t o t t =
|
.
|

\
|
= =
c c c c
r r r r f A .
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Then
1 2
1 2
2 ) (
2
2
2
2
0

=

|
.
|

\
|

|
.
|

\
|
=

= =
c
c
o
o
o o
c
c
c
c
R
r
r
r
r
f A
A
F .
The resistance of aluminum in comparison to copper wire can now be expressed as a ratio of the resistances of
these wires at the same length and conductive radius;
Cu
Al
Cu
Al
Cu Cu
Al Al
Cu
Al
) ( /
) ( /
) (
) (
R
R
F
F
f A
f A
f R
f R
= =
p
p
p
p
.
From the previous equations for , the ratio
279 . 1
Cu
Al
Cu
Al
~ =
p
p
o
o
.
Substituting this skin-depth ratio into the resistance ratio, it becomes
1
1 564 . 1
1 2
1
2
1 2
1 2
1 2
1 2
1 2
) (
) (
Cu
Cu
Cu
Cu
Al
Cu
Al
Cu
Cu
2
Cu
Al
2
Al
2
Cu
Al
Cu
Al
Cu
Al
Cu
Al
>


~

|
|
.
|

\
|

=

|
|
.
|

\
|

|
|
.
|

\
|

|
|
.
|

\
|

|
|
.
|

\
|

|
|
.
|

\
|

|
|
.
|

\
|

|
|
.
|

\
|
= =
c
c
c
p
p
c
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
p
p
c
c
c
c
c
c
R
R
r
r
r
r
r
r
F
F
f R
f R
.
For equal r
c
, aluminum wire has higher R(f) than copper wire for an isolated wire (skin effect only). As
the resistance ratio approaches
Al
/
Cu
, or about 1.279.
Proximity Effect
For Al to be preferred in a design, the resistance ratio of Al to Cu must be less than one. The increase of for Al
is insufficient to overcome its higher with the skin effect of an isolated wire. The proximity effect, which is an
inter-wire skin effect, is the modified current-density distribution in a wire as affected by current in adjacent
wires. For multiple layers of wire, this effect increases significantly and can increase the relative advantage of Al
over Cu. In actual transductors, the proximity effect usually dominates over the intra-wire skin effect and
causes F
R
to be increased. The combined skin and proximity effects have been analyzed in detail, and formulas,
plots, and tables of F
R
are found in the literature.
Defining F
R
for skin effect without proximity effect as F
Rw
, plots of the various F
R
are shown below for copper at
f = 150 kHz (Fig. 1). The effect of F
Rw
is relatively weak and its plot is magnified by 10 times. It increases
monotonically with , and for >> 1 where skin effect dominates over proximity effect, it has an asymptotic
slope of Z.
F
Rs
is the single-layer F
R
with proximity effect included. It is plotted (magnified by 2) with its derivative,
dF
Rs
/d = DF
Rs
(), scaled by 10 times. For 3, F
Rs
settles to a slope of about 1.77, which becomes 1.772 for
4. As the number of layers, m, increases, so do the asymptotic slopes. From the plots it is also evident that
F
Rs
can be approximated by a linear function:
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c c ~ ) 772 . 1 (
Rs
F .
In the region around ~ 1.9, the approximation has its greatest error of about 1.1% for )RU < <
1.5, the error reaches extremes of about 12 %, and below 0.5, the approximation breaks down substantially.
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6 6.5
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24
26
28
30
32
10 F
Rw
AWG ( )
2 F
Rs
c AWG ( ) ( )
F
Rm
c AWG ( ) 2 . ( )
F
Rm
c AWG ( ) 3 . ( )
10 DF
Rs
c AWG ( ) ( )
c AWG ( )
Fig.1. Various forms of the resistance-dependent resistance ratio (FR) are plotted for copper wire
at a frequency of 150 kHz.
Given the two design parameters, and m, the goal is to minimize F
R
. is related to wire size, and for a given
number of turns and winding current in a given window-winding area, it can affect m. Minimization of by using
many strands of very small wire can result in excessive m and high F
R
. Sometimes the reduction in F
R
() to a
minimum occurs by increasing in order to reduce m. This places a limit on the benefit of multiple strands of
wire replacing a single wire when the additional strands form additional layers. Litz wire is multi-stranded wire
with strands weaved together to nullify the layering effect. By interleaving layers with opposite-polarity
currents, reduction of maximum field-referred current, Ni, also occurs.
The ratio of Al to Cu resistance for single-wire skin effect is plotted below (see Fig. 2) as R
AlCuw
(AWG) equals
) AWG (
) AWG (
) (
) (
C
Al
Cu
Al
Cu
Al
u Rw
Rw
F
F
T
T
R
R
=
p
p
and the layered plots (labeled R
AlCu
(AWG, m)) equal
) (AWG), (
) (AWG), (
) (
) (
Cu
Al
Cu
Al
Cu
Al
m F
m F
T
T
R
R
Rm
Rm
c
c
p
p
=
where F
Rm
(, m) is F
R
for m layers and a given . The lower graph shows the same curves as a function of AWG
at f = 150 kHz, where f = f

for about 27 AWG.

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0.5 0.75 1 1.25 1.5 1.75 2 2.25 2.5 2.75 3 3.25 3.5 3.75 4 4.25 4.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
R
AlCu
AWG 1 . ( )
R
AlCu
AWG 2 . ( )
R
AlCu
AWG 3 . ( )
R
AlCu
AWG 4 . ( )
c AWG ( )
Fig. 2. The ratio of aluminum to copper resistance (RAlCuw(AWG)) under single-wire skin effect is
plotted for various wire gauges (AWG) and layers of wire (m) as a function of the skin effect
parameter ().
Fig. 3. Curves for the ratio of aluminum to copper resistance (RAlCuw(AWG)) under single-wire
skin effect are replotted here at f = 150 kHz as a function of wire gauge.
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Nowhere is the plot of R
Al
/R
Cu
(R
AlCuw
) for single-wire skin effect less than one. For an isolated wire, Cu is
always lower in resistance than Al. The plot of a single layer with f = 150 kHz similarly shows the least
disadvantage for Al wire to be about 22%, which occurs around a Cu f

= 167 kHz corresponding to a wire size

of 25 AWG.
The situation changes for two layers. The plot for m = 2 shows that Al has lower resistance from of about 0.9
to 1.25a narrow range. It also corresponds to a frequently-used range of wire sizes, from 24 to 30 AWG at
150 kHz. Thus, for the Cu f

between 83 kHz and 346 kHz corresponding to these wire sizes, the Al wire has
lower resistance by about 5% for 26 AWG at ~ 1.1, which corresponds to a Cu f

of 129 kHz.
For three layers, the advantage of Al continues to increase. It is maximum at a wire size of 27 AWG,
corresponding to a Cu f

of 162 kHz. The range for Al also broadens, from 24 to 30 AWG, with a maximum
advantage in resistance of 14%. And for four layers, the advantage is largest at 28 AWG and a Cu f

of 204 kHz
where the resistance ratio is lowest by 21%, and is below one in the range from 24 to 31.5 AWG.
As the number of layers increases, the optimum decreases slightly, and for m = 4, ~ 0.85. Above about
= 2, the resistance ratio converges to a value of
Al
/
Cu
~ 1.279, and the skin effect is so dominant that the
number of layers does not appreciably affect the resistance ratio. Al outperforms Cu between the regions of
dominant proximity effect ( < 0.5) and dominant skin effect ( > 2).
Often, transductors have two or more layers of wire in the 24 to 32 AWG size range in which Al is lower in
resistance than Cu of the same conductive wire size at 150 kHz. The broader range of for multilayer windings
also maintains Al superiority over the changing frequency spectra caused by varying the converter duty-ratio.
Under these operating conditions, not only does Al wire cost less, it also performs better than Cu wire.
It is a common magnetics design practice, short of resorting to Litz wire, to construct windings of multiple
parallel strands of a smaller size wire to reduce . At high switching frequencies and large currents, the number
of strands can become large and winding construction cumbersome. With a larger A(f) for Al, larger wire size
can be used, reducing the number of strands.
In conclusion, aluminum wire can have lower resistance than copper with multiple-layer windings. Other factors
to consider in the use of aluminum are its lower price and density, its somewhat lower malleability than copper,
and the difficulty of soldering it to bobbin terminals or circuit-board pads.
About The Author
Dennis Feucht has been involved in power electronics for 25 years, designing motor-
drives and power converters. He has an instrument background from Tektronix, where he
designed test and measurement equipment and did research in Tek Labs. He has lately
been doing current-loop converter modeling and converter optimization.
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