Inductor Question

[docmur]

I'm doing the layout for a power supply and I'm wondering what is the difference between a chip inductor in a 1210 package and a small coil?  They both have the say henry value.

[georges80]

You can ask this question too:

What's the difference between a 10k 0402 resistor and a 10k 1210 resistor? Both have the same ohms...

i.e. there are more parameters that need to be looked at than henries for an inductor or ohms for a resistor or farads for a capacitor or..... There's ideal components (that don't exist) or the real world components...

cheers,
george.

[T3sl4co1l]

More space for the power to dissipate over.  (The power rating isn't actually much higher, because it's partly limited by diffusion out of the part. Which is limited by its aspect ratio, actually.  Which is why 0402 resistors are relatively powerful for their area, and 1206s aren't rated much more than 0603s.  Much larger and wider parts have higher ratings, up to a few watts for a suitably made 1218 or something like that.)

Obviously, 0402 is smaller, which is important for saving space, and increased frequency response (lower L and C) for RF (as in, 10s of GHz RF).

Besides thermal, the electromagnetic properties of a part depend linearly on size, because of the speed of light.

Tim

[sarepairman2]

inductors have to be the most fancy of passive components.

[docmur]

Fair enough