Analysis and Prediction of AC Resistance of Litz Wire with Rectangular Cross-Section

The Litz wire is widely utilized in recent high frequency switching regulators as a magnetic wire with small AC resistance. The AC resistance of the Litz wire is dependent on the twisting structure of the strands as well as the resultant cross-section geometry of the Litz wire. Therefore, optimization of the Litz wire is becoming important, although the numerical prediction of the AC resistance is difficult due to the complicated structure of the Litz wire. Certainly, a recent study has proposed an analytical AC resistance prediction method. However, this method cannot be applied to Litz wires with the rectangular cross-section, which is recently developed to improve the packing factor of the winding. This paper aims at extending this previous method to cover these Litz wires by partly utilizing a simple static magnetic field FEM analysis. The experiment revealed successful AC resistance prediction of the Litz wire with the rectangular cross-section.