Osaka, Japan – Panasonic Corporation announced today that it has commercialized a surface mounted automotive power choke coil [1] suitable for power circuits in electronic control units (ECUs) installed in vehicles such as gasoline, diesel, and hybrid cars equipped with internal combustion engines, which are under pressure to meet the growing demand for improved fuel efficiency. The product features low loss, high withstand voltage, and high vibration acceleration-resistant characteristics, and will be mass-produced starting in February 2021.
With ever-tightening environmental regulations around the world, emission regulations for cars with internal combustion engines are becoming more stringent. In order to improve emissions performance, it is necessary for such cars to efficiently burn fuel to achieve complete combustion as much as possible. Accordingly, the direct fuel injection method [2] that directly injects fuel at high pressure into the cylinder has been adopted to facilitate highly efficient fuel combustion. Complete combustion requires fuel to be atomized and finely injected. For that purpose, it is indispensable for the coil used to boost the voltage of the injector drive unit of a direct injection engine to have the low loss and high withstand voltage characteristics in order to shorten its boost voltage recovery time. In addition, more automotive ECUs are being placed in the engine compartment, increasing the integration of mechanical and electronic in-vehicle components [3]. Moreover, this trend has created a need for automotive ECUs that can be installed in high-temperature environments under more severe vibration conditions and support larger currents. Panasonic has independently developed industry-leading low-loss magnetic materials with high withstand voltage to commercialize a surface-mounted automotive power choke coil that achieves the higher performance and downsizing of automotive ECUs.
Panasonic's new automotive power choke coil has the following features:
1. Halved power loss and doubled high withstand voltage performance*2 compared to conventional products through the use of industry-leading low-loss magnetic materials with high withstand voltage.
- • Power loss: 1.5 W (Panasonic’s conventional product*3: 3 W)
- • High withstand voltage: up to 125 V (Panasonic’s conventional product*4: up to 60 V)
2. The downsizing and the reduced number of coils required to be incorporated into ECUs due to the improved performance contribute to ECU space saving.
- • Size: 12.5 mm2 (Panasonic’s conventional product*3: 14 mm2)
3. The product eliminates the need for anti-vibration reinforcement as part of the mounting process, reducing the use of reinforcing measures with bonding agents (adhesives).
- • High resistance to vibration: up to 30 G
- *1: As a surface-mounted power choke coil for automotive use (with a size of 10 to 12.5 mm2) as of Dec. 21, 2020 (Panasonic data).
- *2: When the coil is driven by a triangular wave current with a peak value of 13 Ao-p, a frequency of 75 kHz, and a duty cycle of 35%.
- *3: Panasonic's conventional product: 14-mm2 dust core power choke coil for automotive use (PCC-D1413H series).
- *4: Panasonic's conventional product: 10-mm2 power choke coil for automotive use (PCC-M1054M series).
Suitable applications:
Boosting DC/DC converter circuits [4] for gasoline, diesel, and hybrid cars, power circuits in highly functional automotive ECUs, and automotive ECU circuits integrated with mechanical drive components.
