EPCOS has developed a new ferrite material with the designation N51 that significantly reduces the standby losses of switched mode power supplies. The loss minimum lies in the temperature range between 70 and 120 °C with conventional ferrites. They are designed for full-load operation with this characteristic. However, if the power supply is operated with a very low load or no load at all, the ferrite does not heat up and the energy loss of the power supply is determined significantly by the ferrite material.
N51 has a power loss of no more than 407 kW/m3 at room temperature, a clock frequency of 100 kHz and a magnetic flux of 200 mT. By comparison, the N41 material has losses of 693 kW/m3 under the same conditions. So N51 is well suited for such applications as the power supplies of TV and audio equipment, set-top boxes, PCs, monitors and other equipment operated for a considerable part of its service life in standby mode. In Germany alone some 20 billion kWh of energy are lost annually in this way in standby operation. This figure corresponds to roughly one and a half times the electrical energy a large city like Berlin needs for a whole year.
Further information on the products presented here will be found at 
www.epcos.com/ferrites
Please forward reader inquiries to:
EPCOS AG
Fax +49 89 636-22471
marketing.communications@epcos.com
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