Patent ID: 6842014

Claim:
A method for determining the inductance L of an inductor comprising the steps of: a) connecting a resistor in series with the inductor, wherein the resistor has a resistance of R s ; b) applying a sinusoidal voltage across the series-connected resistor and inductor, wherein the sinusoidal voltage has a frequency ω, a maximum or minimum value V m and an average value; c) measuring the voltage V r across the resistor when the sinusoidal voltage is at its maximum or minimum value; d) measuring the voltage V l across the resistor when the sinusoidal voltage is at its average value; e) calculating the resistance R L of the inductor from the following equation: R L =V m V r R s /(V r 2 +V l 2 )−R s and f) calculating the inductance L of the inductor from the following equation: L=V l (R l +R s )/(V r ω), wherein any initially calculated negative value of L has its sign changed to a positive value.