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SWITCHING
Title: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Phone: (215) 347-1768
MANY ARTICLES HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED ON THE USE OF SATURABLE FERROMAGNETIC MATERIALS TO GENERATE PULSED POWER BY MAGNETICSWITCHING OR PULSE SHARPENING EFFECTS. PREVIOUS WORK HAS USED EITHER AMORPHOUS ALLOYS SUCH AS METGLAS (R) ELSE CONVENTIONAL FERRITES. THE FREQUENCY RESPONSE OF MATGLAS (R) IS SEVERELY LIMITED BY EDDY CURRENT AND SKIN DEPTH EFFECTS SO THAT PULSE WIDTHS LESS THAN CA.40 NSEC ARE DIFFICULT TO ACHIEVE. FERRITES HAVE BETTER HIGH-FREQUENCY RESPONCE DUE TO THEIR INSULATING NATURE, WITH PULSE WIDTHS OF SEVERAL NSEC HAVING BEEN REPORTED. HOWEVER, FERRITES AREHEAVY, BULKY, EXPENSIVE, AND HAVE RELATIVELY LOW VALUES OF SATURATION MAGNETIZATION--TYPICALLY ONLY CA.2000 GAUSS. IN RECENT YEARS IT HAS BECOME PRACTICAL TO CONSIDER THE MASS PRODUCTION OF MICROLAMINATED SQUARE LOOP MATERIALS BASED ON CRYSTALLINE OR AMORPHOUS NI-FE-CO ALLOYS. IN THESE MATERIALS THE INDIVIDUAL MAGNETIC LAYERS WILL BE MUCH LESS THAN ONE MICRON THICK; THEREFORE, THEY WILL RETAIN THEIR LOW-LOSS SWITCHING BEHAVIOR UP TO THEIR NATURAL FERROMAGNETIC RESONANCE FREQUENCY, WHICH CAN BE > 1 GHZ (I.E., < 1 NSEC). THIS RESEARCH PROGRAM WILL DEVELOP WAYS TO MASS-PRODUCE THESE MATERIALS (REFERRED TO AS MICRO-LAMINATED FERROMAGNETIC COMPOSITES OR MLF) IN A GEOMETRY THAT IS SUITABLE FOR USE AS CORE MATERIAL IN MAGNETIC SWITCHING APPLICATIONS.
* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *