Fig. 1: Typical coils produced by printed wiring techniques.
ues. Square coils, produced easier than spirals, are more desirable
Printed Inductors and Capacitors
The manufacturing ease, stability, and reproducibility of
printed coils and capacitors make them attractive for printed
wiring applications. Empirical design data presented here
was obtained from a study of a large number of coils
and capacitors of various sizes.
AGREAT deal of useful informa-
tion is available for the design
of conventional types of wound coils.
Such is not the case with inductors
"printed" along with wiring on plas-
tic laminates. Although convention-
ally wound coils may of course be
used in conjunction with printed
circuits, the manufacturing ease,
stability and reproducibility of the
printed variety make them very at-
tractive for many applications.
The formulas found in the hand-
books do not perform satisfactorily
for printed coils, probably because
of the nature of the conductors used.
Errors as high as 100% have been
experienced in attempting to apply
them. In addition, the majority of
them are quite time consuming, in-
volving a number of terms and the
application of tables and curves.
Information as to the Q which may
be expected from printed coils, and
the magnitude and the effects of
their distributed capacity, is also
needed, since these factors will in
many applications determine the
suitability of printed inductors.
Capacitors may also be formed
during the fabrication process by
forming plates on each side of the
plastic board or through a variety of
patterns on one side. Q will be ap-
proximately the same in either case.
Although these may not be the best
capacitors in the world, they can be
H. E. BRYAN, U. S. Navy Electronics Lab.,
San Diego, Calif.
68
By H. E. BRYAN
very useful in many non - critical ap- of as circular, such spirals are dif-
plications. ficult to draw. As a result, square
Because of the general dearth of coils, being easy to draw, were in-
information on the design of these cluded. The equations presented be-
components a large number of coils low give the true or low frequency
and capacitors of various sizes were inductance in microhenries. The
constructed for study. From the data type of base material used makes no
obtained the information presented difference in this value, although it
here was obtained. does affect the Q and distributed
capacity, as discussed below.
Inductance Calculation For circular coils
As mentioned above, attempts to 0.126an'1'
L = log 8c
apply the formulas found in various and for square coils
handbooks met with failure because
of the extreme errors experienced. L = 0.141 a fl' log 8
Derivation of suitable equations was
therefore mandatory. Although there where
are probably an infinite number of n = number of turns
possible configurations for such
coils, time required that efforts be
limited to the two most likely forms Fig.2: Effect of distributed capacitance
-circular and square. The formulas upon inductance as function of frequency
presented here, while not extremely 1.0
accurate, will be found to be ade-
quate for most if not all practical 0.9
applications; and, in addition, they
are easy to use. The error experi-
enced in using these equations runs W
i 0.8
within 5% in the majority of cases. :
U V
ao: 07
However, it must be admitted that U-
coils were constructed in which the
0.6
error went higher for some unknown wW
reason. This occurred in less than J lt
3% of the coils studied, so is not 61w 0.5
considered a serious condition and JIJ
may have been due to errors in 0.0
measurement of dimensions. (Many
coils were made by stripping turns 0.3
from others, so no chance for re-
checking was available in some 0.2
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 I O 2
cases.) f OPERATING FREO.
Although a coil is usually thought f SELF RESONANT FREO
TELE -TECH & ELECTRONIC INDUSTRIES December 1955
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