Comprehensive accuracy examination of electrical power loss measurements of inductive components for frequencies up to 1 MHz

Electrical measurement is a common method to determine core losses of inductive components. In such core-loss measurements, current and voltage signal delays induce significant error due to phase measurement inaccuracies. In this paper, these inaccuracies are reduced by a novel compensation method. Thereby, the signal delays for a specifically developed large signal measurement setup in a frequency range of 0.1-1 MHz are frequency compensated. Measurement inaccuracies of 0.07° are achieved for sinusoidal signals. This leads to a relative power loss error of Е 20% for a measured phase of 89.65°. To demonstrate the impact of the compensation on core loss measurements, a material with low effective permeability (µeff of 10) is characterized. The results show a difference in core losses by factor 2.5 and a relative error of Е of 150% between the compensated and uncompensated measurement.