A Design-of-Experiments-Based Approach to Design Planar Transformers for High-Voltage Low-Power Applications

Transformers with low losses are required in isolated high-to-low voltage, low-power applications, with strong constraints regarding the solution’s size and cost. A design approach based on a design-of-experiments (DoEs) that allows to study the influence of the main key design parameters of such a passive device. It leads to select few solutions whose performances are measured in a 400 to 12 V, 1 W prototype. The best transformer design allows reaching a 85% peak efficiency for a core volume of 2100 mm³ at an operating frequency of 275 kHz.