Calculating inductance of flat PCB spiral coils in various configurations
Steven
Wednesday 27th May 2020
Hi all,
I'm investigating whether I can use LayoutEditor to calculate the inductance of flat PCB spiral coils in various configurations, like:
* on one or both sides of a typical PCB;
* in a bifilar (interleaved) way, in parallel or series, in the same or opposite directions (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bifilar_coil);
* with varying copper trace widths and thicknesses.
Also I wonder whether I could use the app to export a design as DXF file to use as footprint in KiCad - or perhaps design a PCB directly in LayoutEditor. I have played around with two other apps that offer similar FastHenry-based simulation:
* Spiki (https://github.com/in3otd/spiki) which generates simulation values and KiCad footprints, but only offers either one coil or two in series;
* EM Workbench (https://wiki.freecadweb.org/EM_Workbench) in FreeCAD which offers the opportunity to define a fasthenry 'port' object (thereby making explicit between which two points the current is applied), but only works with straight segments, not also curved/arc ones like in Spiki.
I've been doing some experimenting already in LayoutEditor, but am not sure whether it offers what I'm describing. If anyone could help me out in figuring this out, I would very much appreciate it.
Thanks in advance, Steven