Impact of Inductors Saturation on DC-DC Switching Regulators

This paper discusses the impact of ferrite inductors saturation on the performances of DC-DC switching regulators. This analysis demystifies some misconceptions about the influence of inductor saturation on power converters performances. Case studies and examples presented in this paper show that inductor saturation can be tolerated by switching regulators, depending on topology, semiconductor power components and control. Moreover, under certain conditions, the performances of DC-DC regulators with small saturating inductors are comparable to those ones obtained with large non-saturated inductors