Novel Fabrication Method for a High-Performance Soft-Magnetic Composite Composed of Alumina-Coated Fe-Based Metal Powder

A high-performance soft-magnetic composite (SMC) has been successfully fabricated in a toroidal mold without the application of compaction pressure by mixing three different alumina-coated Fe-based metal powders, namely carbonyl iron (FM), Fe-Si-Cr alloy (FSC), and Fe-Si-Al alloy (sendust), with epoxy resin in a centrifugal paste mixer. Surface coating with an alumina layer was performed via a sol–gel process, and its thickness was controlled by varying the coating time. Without the alumina coating, the SMC toroidal core with a FM:FSC:sendust mixing ratio of 8:22:70 by mass exhibited optimal magnetic properties including an effective permeability (μeff) of 33.9 and total core loss (Pt) of 252 mW/cm3 at 100 kHz with an amplitude (B) of 50 mT. With the alumina coating, however, the SMC toroidal core with the same mixing ratio exhibited a significantly reduced Pt value of 213 mW/cm3 while its μeff value was slightly decreased to 32.4, primarily due to the suppression of the macroscopic eddy-current loss from 115 mW/cm3 to 85 mW/cm3. These results indicate that an optimal mixture of the three different alumina-coated Fe-based metal powders is very effective for fabricating high-performance SMC cores without external pressure for molding, being applicable for miniature electronic components.