An inductor is a passive two-terminal electrical component that stores energy in its magnetic field. An inductor is about as simple as an electronic component can get. It is simply a coil of wire. It turns out, however, that a coil of wire can do some very interesting things because of the magnetic properties of a coil. Any conductor has inductance. An inductor is typically made of a wire or other conductor wound into a coil, to increase the magnetic field.
One way to visualize the action of an inductor is to imagine a narrow channel with water flowing through it, and a heavy water wheel that has its paddles dipping into the channel. Imagine that the water in the channel is not flowing initially.
You can try to start the water flowing. The paddle wheel will tend to prevent the water from flowing until it has come up to speed with the water. If you then try to stop the flow of water in the channel, the spinning water wheel will try to keep the water moving until its speed of rotation slows back down to the speed of the water. An inductor is doing the same thing with the flow of electrons in a wire -- an inductor resists a change in the flow of electrons.
The capacity of an inductor is controlled by four factors:
1) The number of coils - More coils means more inductance.
2) The material that the coils are wrapped around (the core)
3) The cross-sectional area of the coil - More area means more inductance.
4) The length of the coil - A short coil means narrower (or overlapping) coils, which means more inductance.
Putting iron in the core of an inductor gives it much more inductance than air or any non-magnetic core would.
The standard unit of inductance is the henry.
An ideal inductor will be lossless irrespective of the amount of current through the winding. However, typically inductors have winding resistance from the metal wire forming the coils. Since the winding resistance appears as a resistance in series with the inductor, it is often called the series resistance. The inductor's series resistance converts electric current through the coils into heat, thus causing a loss of inductive quality. The quality factor (or Q) of an inductor is the ratio of its inductive reactance to its resistance at a given frequency, and is a measure of its efficiency. The higher the Q factor of the inductor, the closer it approaches the behavior of an ideal, lossless, inductor.
The Q factor of an inductor can be found through the following formula, where R is its internal (Series Model) electrical resistance and wL is the inductive reactance at resonance:
You can try to start the water flowing. The paddle wheel will tend to prevent the water from flowing until it has come up to speed with the water. If you then try to stop the flow of water in the channel, the spinning water wheel will try to keep the water moving until its speed of rotation slows back down to the speed of the water. An inductor is doing the same thing with the flow of electrons in a wire -- an inductor resists a change in the flow of electrons.
1) The number of coils - More coils means more inductance.
2) The material that the coils are wrapped around (the core)
3) The cross-sectional area of the coil - More area means more inductance.
4) The length of the coil - A short coil means narrower (or overlapping) coils, which means more inductance.
Putting iron in the core of an inductor gives it much more inductance than air or any non-magnetic core would.
The standard unit of inductance is the henry.
Types of the conductors are
Air core inductor
Radio frequency inductor
Ferromagnetic core inductor
Laminated core inductor
Ferrite-core inductor
Toroidal core inductor
Variable inductor
An ideal inductor will be lossless irrespective of the amount of current through the winding. However, typically inductors have winding resistance from the metal wire forming the coils. Since the winding resistance appears as a resistance in series with the inductor, it is often called the series resistance. The inductor's series resistance converts electric current through the coils into heat, thus causing a loss of inductive quality. The quality factor (or Q) of an inductor is the ratio of its inductive reactance to its resistance at a given frequency, and is a measure of its efficiency. The higher the Q factor of the inductor, the closer it approaches the behavior of an ideal, lossless, inductor.
The Q factor of an inductor can be found through the following formula, where R is its internal (Series Model) electrical resistance and wL is the inductive reactance at resonance: