Printed Circuit Boards for High-Power Transformer Windings

The goal of this project is to design a power transformer using printed circuit boards as windings. If the boards have a sufficiently high number of layers, it is possible to complete enough windings for an effective transformer. The designed board contains 12 copper layers that act as windings. Layers are connected using a vertical interconnect access, or VIA, and the boards are stacked together to make a complete transformer. The two main focus areas of the project are the layout of the boards and their thermal performance. The layout design concentrated on the pattern of VIAs and shape of the copper layers. The boards have been designed to connect from layer to layer to ensure full windings around the core. The VIAs have also been arranged in such a way that the VIAs don't short on each other when the boards are stacked. Transformers generate heat, so it is important to minimize the heat buildup, which could melt the boards. A thermal analysis was performed using SolidWorks to keep boards below their melting temperature. Due to budget and time constraints, building a complete transformer was not feasible. Instead, a small prototype consisting of three boards stacked together was built, which proved that the repeatable layout design is feasible and that the complete transformer will not melt under normal load.