Using parallel windings in planar magnetic components

The use of parallel windings is a very common practice in planar magnetics, where the copper thickness is usually very low to handle typical current values. Besides, the use of parallel turns allows applying better interleaving among the different windings. This work presents a review of the proper modeling strategy in order to take into account the current distribution through each paralleled winding. Different winding strategies have been analyzed using a finite element analysis (FEA) based model in order to obtain the proper procedure to place parallel windings in planar magnetics. Although the modeling strategy presented is valid for any winding strategy (planar and concentric), it has been applied in order to test planar components.