Christian Polak¹; ¹Vacuumschmelze Gmbh & Co. Kg

Among metallic soft magnetic materials, amorphous and nanocrystalline alloys are the most promising candidates for advanced and energy-efficient inductive components. Nowadays there is the need for less environmental loads, respectively lower electrical losses and/or for miniaturization of inductive components caused by higher operating frequency of SiC-based switches. Nanocomposite Co-rich or Fe-rich soft magnetic materials are particularly suitable for these applications with low core losses at higher frequencies and high saturation induction to archive high power density. The addressed alloys are typically cast into thin amorphous ribbons by planar flow casting processes. A short time annealing of the ribbons under tensile stress along the ribbon axis leads then to huge anisotropy, respectively to small and extremely small permeability and perfect linear hysteresis loops. Recent results of various strain annealed Co-rich or Fe-rich alloy compositions will be presented and opportunities for future application will be highlighted.