Abstract:
An inductor uses a printed circuit board rather than conventional wire coils to improve energy and time efficiency, and enhance productivity and quality control; furthermore, the present invention increases the inductance and current-endurance value by increasing the layers and coils in the conductive line.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to an inductor. In particular, the present invention relates to an inductor using printed circuit board to replace the conventional coil.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0004]    Conventional inductor components or devices are formed primarily by coiling wire around a core. However, coiling carried out manually or by coiling machines is usually extremely energy- and time-consuming. Additionally, various coiling methods frequently cause damage to the wire. Quality inconsistencies due to damage to the protective/insulation layers of the wires during the coiling process also occurs. Insulating paint is frequently chipped off from excessive friction between the wire and the core or bobbin, as well as from repeated bending and winding in the coiling process.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    An object of the present invention is to provide a novel inductor device, comprising a core body and an exciter component. The exciter component is comprised of a printed circuit board with an opening in the circuit board to accept part of the core body. The conductive lines on the printed circuit board are wound along a specific orientation (clockwise or counterclockwise) around the opening and electrically connected through layers of boards to form the exciter coils of the inductor device.  
           [0006]    Additionally, the layers and the number of coils on the printed circuit board is variable to meet inductance demands and desired current endurance requirements. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]    The present invention can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description in conjunction with the examples and references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:  
         [0008]    [0008]FIGS. 1 a  and  1   b  illustrate the inductor of the first embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0009]    [0009]FIG. 2 a  shows the schematic diagram of the possible patterns of the conductive paths on the four layers of boards in FIG. 1;  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 2 b  shows the assembly diagram of the boards; and  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a conductive-path assembly layer (Lt). 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0012]    The First Embodiment FIGS. 1 a  and  1   b  illustrate the inductor of the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1 a , the inductor  10  of the present invention comprises: a core body  12  and a printed circuit board  14 , as an exciter coil. In the embodiment, 4 layers of boards are adopted for the printed circuit board  14  as an example.  
         [0013]    The core  12  is an EE type in this case, but it should not limit the present invention, as cores with UU, UI or other types can also be applied to the invention.  
         [0014]    The printed circuit board  14  has an open CW through it to accept part of the core  12 . A conductive line  16  on the printed circuit board  14  is wound in a clockwise orientation around the opening CW and electrically connected through the layers of boards to form the exciter coil of the inductor; wherein two nodes N 1  and N 2  on the inductor  10  are used for external connections.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 2 a  shows the schematic diagram of the possible patterns of the conductive paths on the four layers of boards in FIG. 1; and FIG. 2 b  shows the schematic assembly diagram of the boards.  
         [0016]    The printed circuit board  14  has 4 layers of boards including: 4 layers of conductive paths (L 1 ˜L 4 ); and 3 layers of insulation boards (S 1 ˜S 3 ), each respectively sandwiched between every two layers of the conductive paths.  
         [0017]    As shown in FIG. 2 a , the conductive line of the conductive path layer L 1 , taking I 1  as the start point, winds inwardly around the opening CW in a a clockwise orientation (as the arrow sign shows in the Figure) toward an end point E 1 ; the conductive line of the conductive path layer L 2 , with a start point I 2  penetrating insulation board S 1  to connect the end point E 1  of the conductive path layer L 1 , winds outwardly around the opening CW in a clockwise orientation to an end point of the conductive path E 2 . Similarly, a conductive line of the conductive path layer L 3 , with a start point I 3  penetrating the insulation board S 2  to connect with the end point E 2  of the conductive path layer L 2 , is wound inwardly around the opening CW in a clockwise orientation to an end point of the conductive path E 3 ; the conductive line of the conductive path layer L 4 , with a start point I 4  penetrating through the insulation board S 3  to connect with an end point E 3  of the conductive path layer L 3 , is wound outwardly around the opening CW in a clockwise orientation to the end point of the conductive path E 4 .  
         [0018]    Thus, the conductive lines of the conductive path layers (L 1 ˜L 4 ) are connected through layers of insulation boards to form the conducting line  16  (having a start point I 1  and an end point E 4 ) wound around the core  12  in the opening CW in a clockwise orientation; and thus forming the inductor  10 . Referring to FIG. 2 b , the signal nodes N 1  and N 2  in FIG. 1 b  are respectively the start and end points I 1  and E 4  of the conductive lines of the exciter coil forming the printed circuit board  14 .  
         [0019]    The inductance of the inductor  10  can be enhanced in the present invention by increasing the number of conductive path layers simultaneously increasing the number of exciter coils in the inductor  10 .  
         [0020]    Additionally, the width of the copper path of the conductive line  16  on the printed circuit board  14  is variable to enhance the current-endurance value of the inductor  10 .  
         [0021]    The Second Embodiment  
         [0022]    Apart from increasing the width of the copper path, the endure-current value can alternately be achieved by the following method:  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 3 shows the schematic diagram of an conductive-path assembly layer (L t ) comprised of n layers of conductive lines (LL 1 ˜LL n ) and n−1 layers of boards (SS 1 ˜SS n−1 ). The insulation boards (SS 1 ˜SS n−1 ) are configured between each two layers of conductive lines (LL 1 ˜LL n ); wherein all conductive lines (LL 1 ˜LL n ) are arranged in such a manner that start points (A 1 ˜A n ) of the path lines are electrically connected through all the insulation boards (SS 1 ˜SS n−1 ). In comparison with the conductive path layers in FIG. 2 a , the conductive-path assembly layer L t  has a current-endurance value n times that of any layer of the conductive paths L 1 ˜L 4 .  
         [0024]    The conductive path layers (L 1 ˜L 4 ) in the first embodiment, referring to the configuration of the conductive paths in FIG. 2 a , are each assembled using the method in FIG. 3 to form an improved printed circuit board; when n=2, the printed circuit board has 8 layers of conductive lines, instead of the original layers of 4, thus the current-endurance value is doubled. So other assembly numbers of a conductive path are applicable to the present invention.  
         [0025]    Conductive-path assemblies of 2, 4, 8 or more layers make little difference to board thickness with regard to the manufacturing process of printed circuit boards. The thickness of printed circuit board is not going to become too large when the current-endurance value is enhanced significantly.  
         [0026]    From the illustrations described above, the printed circuit board adopts copper path lines instead of the conventional wire wraps, thereby, the number of wraps, the current-endurance value, and other properties of conventional exciter wires are equivalently defined by merely defining the configuration of the copper path lines on the printed circuit board. Therefore, the energy and time consuming problems associated with conventional wiring methodology is solved in the present invention; with the simple process of copper path configuration, quality and productivity are greatly improved. Furthermore, by increasing the layers and the rounding numbers of the conductive lines on the printed circuit, the inductance and the current-endurance value can be increased to meet requirements. It will be an extra advantage to have the printed circuit board made into SMD mode to facilitate the manufacturing and assembly process.  
         [0027]    Finally, while the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of the preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. On the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements as would be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.