What is an Inductor?

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Inductors are one of the most common electronic components in the industry, right up there with resistors and capacitors. While they may seem simple, there’s more to consider about them than just their size and inductance value. This blog, accompanied by our Another Teaching Moment video on the same topic, aims to explore inductance and the purpose of inductors within an electrical circuit.

For starters, what is the basis of their purpose and how are they composed? Inductors, coils, or chokes are electronic components that store energy within a magnetic field as current flows through it, while also opposing any change in the flow of current. These devices consist of a conductor coiled around a core that could be made of various materials.

We know that when electrical current flows through a conductor, a magnetic field is generated around the conductor. This can be visualized by the Right Hand Rule. Grabbing the conductor in your right hand by wrapping your index fingers around the conductor and pointing your thumb along the conductor in the direction of current flow, the magnetic field flux lines will be in the direction of your index fingers. Now, if you take that same conductor and coil it, each individual loop of the coil creates a separate magnetic field. These individual fields combine to create one large, strong field.

So, how do inductors resist change in current flow? As magnetic fields are introduced into an electrical circuit, a back voltage (or back EMF) is generated. This voltage opposes the supply voltage, thus causing the resistance. This causes the magnetic field to grow until current flows freely through the circuit. Once the supply is powered down, the inductor again resists the change in current by continuing to power up the circuit for a time with the current that was stored within the magnetic field. Think of this as an “overflow” of power. While the circuit is powered, “excess” current pools and builds up in the magnetic field that stays full once it meets a certain threshold. Then, once the circuit is powered down, this overflow is opened and powers the circuit until it’s exhausted.

Inductors are valuable components in applications such as power supplies to help stabilize output current, filter frequencies, and efficiently step-up or step-down voltages. As with most components, there are various types and compositions of inductors that have different purposes.

Hopefully this information has furthered your understanding of this common component and eased your comfortability in implementing them into your design.