96 TRANSACTIONSIEEE ON MAGNETICS Jme

The Characteristics s f Ferrite Cores with Low Curie

Temperature and their Application

Absfracf-The utility oi ferrite cores which have the Curie Figure 1 shows the charact'eristics of pennea.bilityvs.
temperature in the vicinity of the room temperature and suddenly t,emperature nzeasured while excit,inga frequency of 1 kc/s.
change the permeability vs. temperature characteristic nearthe
Curie temperature is described in this paper.
When t,he ferrite cores with thc previously mentioned char-
Using the characteristics of these ferrite cores, the author made acteristic are applied to various electric devices, a circuit,
an overcurrent relay and a long delay circuit, and investigated their shown by Pig. 2(a), is generally used for detecting heat
application to a temperature control device and to the thermo- input signals in the form of elect'ric output. Now let us
magneticgenerator. These devices are smaller thanusual,and observe the behavior of ferrite cores in t,his circuit. As
operate with good accuracy.
The author finds that ferrite cores with low Curie temperature shown in Fig. 3, the ferrite core is of a ring form. Assume
are materials important to the development of a new field in elec- that the Curie temperature of the core is represented by
trical engineering. T,; the R-H curve, in which the temperature of the core
does not reach t8he Curie tmnperat'ureshown is by Fig. 3(b),
and the relation bet,weerl ~ ~ c ~ ~ n c ayhand
i l i t temperatme of
INTRODUCTIOY
the core, by Fig. 3(c).
Y ADDiKG proper materials and through a process,
B ferrite cores with low Curie temperature have been
obtained, whose permeabilit'y vs. temperature character-
istics change sharply in the neighborhood of Curie t.en1-
perature, in the case of the manufacture of Xn-Cu ferrite.
Theauthor,interestedinthe usefulness of suchferrite
cores, has examined theirmagneticcharacteristics and
studied their application to the control and various other
devices.
In the application of ferrite cores with low Curie tem-
peratxre toelectric devices, two principles hold. When heat
input, is given to ferrit,e cores, one principle explains why
the permeability vs. t,emperature characteristics of ferrite
cores change slowly in t,ime, and the other explains their
sudden change. The author made an overcurrent relay and Fig. 1. Permeability vs.temperature curves of various specimen
of ferrite core.
a long delay circuit by making good use of the former prin-
ciple, and investigated the application of t'he core to a
I
temperature control device andto t'hethermomagnetic
generator by using the lat'ter principle. He succeeded in
making these devices, which are' smaller than usual, and
which operate with good accuracy, because of the use of
Curie temperatureas a temperature reference. Inthis
paper, he describes these results.
BASICCHARACTERISTICS CORES
OF FERRITE Fig. 2. Basic circuit and induced volhage waveshape.

Generally, the Curie temperature of ferrite cores used

for electric devices is in the region above 100°C or so. i f
proper treatment is given to the manufacture of Mn-Cu
ferrite, the ferrite cores, which have the Curie tenlperature
at any degree in the vicinity of room temperature, and
whose permeability vs. temperature characteristic brings
about, a sudden change in the neighborhood of the Curie
temperature, canbemade.
(a) (ill (c)
Manuscript received February 15, 1964. Fig. 3. Core construction andtypical characteristics of ferrite
The author is with the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Tohoku core. ( a ) R.ing core. (b) Hysteresis loop. (e) Idealized permeability
University,Sendai, Japan. vs. temperature curve.
1965 A4uralcami:
Cores Ferrite with Low Curie
Temperature 97

If, in the circuit of Fig. 2(a), t'he current of winding N L If Ohe current in winding N L , increases suddenly and
is represented by I,, the resistance of winding N L by RL, continues a t a constant value, and this value is represented
the hysteresis loss of ferrite core by W,, the core tempera- by I,, the temperature T , of the ferrite core will arise ac-
ture by T n , the temperature in the circumference by To, cording to t.he following relation :
and the heat transfer coefficient by h (which% assumed
as constant in the region of the temperatures used in the +
T = ( T , - T,) [I - e - ( l o 2 R L i " c / c f ( m - T O ) ) t 1 T,. (4)
experiment), the temperatureof ferrite cores in the steady is the temperature of the magnetic core after infinite
st.ate isshown by the following relation : time. Figure 4 shows t'he relation of (4).
Now if T , > T , after time tQ, the temperature of ferrite
Tn = (I2&RL + +
W c ) / h TO. (1) core arrives at the Curie temperature and the induced volt-
In Pig. 3, the average diameter of the ferrite core is de- age of winding N , becomes aero.
noted by Dm, the magnetizing force of full control by H ,
and the amount of t,he total flux A@%. If the equivalent tQ = (C,/h) log { [(Io2RL Wc)/h- (Tn- T OI/)
impedance of ferrite core is negligibly small in contrast to +
[ ( I o ~ R L Wc)/h - (TQ - Toll}* (5)
load resistance R D ,and if the t'emperatureof magnetic core Figure 5 shows some examples of the dynamic B-H loop
shown in (1) is smaller than the Curie temperatureT,, the of ferrite core, at temperatures near t'he Curie tempera-
voltage of the waveshape shown by Fig. 2(b) will be in- ture, and the induced voltage waveshapes of ferrite core.
duced at theterminal of winding N , . Then &t and to, shown Cf is the heat capacity of ferrite core.
in Fig. 2(b), are expressed by the following relation: As is obvious fromthe above results, if the resistance RL
at = [N,wb@,/(l - cos ut,)] sin uto. of winding N L is fixed properly, t,he heat generated byRL is
used as input signal, and the temperature of t'he ferrite
core arrived at the Curie t'e,mperature can be detected by
t'he disappearance of the induced voltage of winding N,.
Now let us describe some examples of the practical ap-
plication of this characteristic.

APPLICATION
TO OVERCURRENT RELAY

;--tQ+ As seen from ( 5 ) , if the ferrite core shown in Fig. 1 is

used, and R, and Cfproperly decided, a new inverse-time
t overcurrent relay can be made.
Fig. 4. lielationship of' equation ( 4 ) Figure 6 shows a circuit of the inverse-time overcurrent
relay devised by the author. Let explain us its action by the
use of Fig. 6. At first, the no-voltage release XW must be
closed. If the load current flowing in the winding N L is
below the rated value(in case of a large load current, use a
current transformer or a shunt resistor), the temperature
of the ferrite core is below the Curie temperahre, and the
voltage of the waveshape shown in Fig.2(b) appears across
winding N,. This voltage pulse is used to fire the silicon-
controlled rectifiers (SCRs) and henceoperatestheno-
volt,age release t o r r ~ n . ' 7
Underfault or overload conditions, the ohmic loss of
resistance RL will increase and, owing to the heatcaused by
it, the temperature of ferrite core will rise. After the time
tQ, if the temperatureof magnetic core arrives a t t,he Curie
temperature, theinduced voltage of winding N , disappears
(thus turning on SCR and operating the no-voltage re-
lease to "off "), and breaks the overload current.
Figure 7 shows an inverse-timeovercurrentrelayde-
vised bytheauthortoprotectagainstoverheatingthe
special Dransformer. Figure 8 shows the time-current,
characteristics measured whenthe circumference tenzpera-
ture ranged fronz 23OC to 26OC.
For this relay, the value of the Curie temperature is
taken as the standard value and, therefore, the tempera-
Fig. 5. Dynamic B-H loop and induced voltagewaveshape af- ture rise of the protectivedevice is limited to certain values,
fected by temperature.Temperature equals: (a) 35°C. (b) 38°C.
(c) 39°C. despite thetemperat,ures around theprotective device.
98 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON A!lAGNLCTICS Jam

Therefore, if the operating temperatureof the relay is con- TIMING

APPLICATION TO UNIT FOR LOXGDELAY
nected withthe limited temperature of the protective When long delay is needed, RC circuit, or the magnetic
device, one need not adjust t,he definite time according to cores, have been used [l],[ Z ] , but in these cases there are
the circumference temperature conditions. some weak points in that the apparat,us are apt be to large
This relay is small in comparison with the induction disc or t,he setting of delay time will det,eriorate in precision. If
relays or the induction cup relays, andoperat,es accurately, the characteristic of the ferrite cores wit,h low Curie tem-
without any chattering or bouncing, because there are no perature is utilized, a small-sized tinling unit for long delay
mechanical contacts in the process of detecting faults and can be made. The practical use of this isexamined.
amplifying the signal current,. As seen from (5), if the size of ferrite cores, resistance
As the voltage suurce for thisrelay,the same power RL, etc., aredecided, tQis decided by the current I , as ilqut
supply as that of the load can be utilized so t'hat it has signal. Namely, if in t,he circuit>of Fig. 2(a) the inputsignal
another advantage in that' a special power supply is not current I , is made to flow through the constant-cnrrent le-
needed. I n case of a fault' in the voltage source, the no- vice into winding NL and the induced voltage across wind-
voltage release operates,and when the fault of power ing N , disappears after a certain time owing to the ohmic
source is corrected, no-voltage is applied in t.he relay or loss of resistance RL,a delay circuit, can be made by adding
the load, unless the no-voltage release is closed; thus, this the required circuit. By this method, it is easy to get long
relay is free from danger delay by reducing the value of resistlance RL to a small
This relay spends few volt-amperes, so it can be utilized amount,.
for the overload protection of the small devices. Homrever, as shown in (5), if the circumference ternpera-
ture changes, 1,, as the time in which the temperature of
ac the magnetic core arrives at the Curie temperature, will
SUPPLY vary, even if the input current I , is constant.Figure 9
* shows the relat,ion between the circumference tempemture
and the delay time, in contrast to various values of input
current I , calculated by the use of (5).
Prom this figure, one will see that if t,he input current is
large, t, is const,ant in the region of lemperature at which,
in general, t,he delay circuit is used. But' when I , is small,
t, changes in considerable degree, according to the varia-
tion of the circumference temperature. In such cases, if the
Fig. 6. Basic circuit of overcurrent relay. .^

RL:0.08R T
:, 65-C
20 WC4.5mW h: 0.001
w/tcm2
T\
15

IO

5
Fig. 7. View of overcurrent relay using ferrite core.

-
.-
c
0 10 20

Fig. 9. Time vs. temperature curves with various values of

E
b
current fo.
d
+-'
FERRITE : cm-135

Y I I I
3

0
5 10
Fig. 8. Measured characteristics of inverse-time relay. Fig. 10. Characteristics of delay circuit.
196'1 JIuralcami: Ferrite Co?*eswith
Temperature
Low Curie 99

timing unit is put int'o a n oil tank having a large heat Substituting (7) into (8), we obtain the relationbetween
capacity, or into the temperaturecontrol room, the timing thet'emperatureandthe value of flux expressed a s a
unit can be used as an independent timing unit for delay, function of t.
free from the influence of the circumference temperature.
If the 'input current against the circumference tempera-
tures is compensated by the following relation, t, can be
kept constant. The current Ix to flow at the circumference (9)
temperature T , is expressed as follows: Curve C in Fig. 13 shows the relation expressed by (9).
Ix = lo((TQ- T x ) / {( T Q- To)[l + a(TX- T o ) ] } ) " ' (6) t p and tQ,as the time in which the temperature of ferrite
core arrives at T p and TQ,respectively, can be obtained
where cy. is thetemperature coefficient of resistor, RL. from (8).
Figure 10 shows the characteristicsreallysought when As seen from Fig. 13, the voltage generates the winding
compensation is made by the use of (6) for cases in which N L as long as t p 5 t 5 t,.
the circumference t,emperatures are35"C, 30"C, and 23°C.
It shows that tQ is constant in spite of the variat,ion of the
circumference temperature.
As already mentioned, if the ferrite cores wibh low Curie
Equation (10) shows that, as the residual flux of the core
temperatureare utilized,a small-sized delay apparatus
becomes larger, TQdraws nearer T , in value, the quantity
with long delay time canbe easily made.
of supply heat Q is larger, and the generated voltage of
APPLICATION TO THERMOMAGNETIC
GENERATOR the transducer will increase.
If the quantityof heat supplied to theferrite core becomes
For the generation of electricenergy, the method of zero, the t'emperature of the ferrite core falls according t o
moving the conductor by crossing the magnetic field is
generally used. On the contrary, however, it is possible to
generate electric energy by fixing the conductor, and mov-
ing the magnetic field crossed with it, too.
The ferrit.e cores described in this paper have character-
istics in that their Curie temperatures are low, and the
flux vanishessuddenlynear the Curie temperature; the
magneticcharact'erist<ic has a comparativelyrectangular
hyst'eresis loop, and the residual flux is also large. There-
Fig. 11. Typical characteristic of flux vs. temperature.
fore, it. is possible for the winding to generate electricpower
by having a winding on the ferrite core, and by changing
the flux of the magnetic core through repeated heatings
and coolings near the Curie temperature 131-[5]. The
COO LING^ I HEATING
author examined the utility of the transducer for conver-
sion of heat energy to electric energyby thismethod. It was
foundfrom the results thus obtained, that this method
has some advantagesinthat nopermanentmagnetis
needed, operating temperatures are low, etc.
Wind the bias winding N o , and the load winding N L , as
shown in Fig. 12, on the ring-formed ferrite core whose
Fig. 12. Basic circuit of thermomagnetic generator.
flux vs. temperaturecharacteristic is shown in Fig. 11.
If the residual flux js represented by a,, the relat.ion be-
tween the flux @ and the t'emperature T of the ferrite core
is expressed by the following equation:
T = TQ - @(TQ- Tp)/am. (7)
If the quantityof the heatgiven to theferrite core in unit
time is represented by Q, the heat capacity byCf, and the
heat t'ransfer coefficient by h, if the temperature of t'he
magnetic core rises uniformly, then there can be found the
following equation :
T = (T, - To)[1 - e-Q/Cf(Tm-To)t 1 + To (8)
where To is the circunlference temperature, and T , is the
temperature of the ferrite core when t = 00. Curve A in
Fig. 13 shows the relation expressed by (8). Fig. 13. Graphical
analysis of flux vs. time curve of ferrite core.
100 IEEE TRANSACTIONS O N MAGNETICS ,JUlM?

the following equation: amplifier with third winding was also used. Ferrite core 1 is
T = To + (TR - T,)e- h / C f z .
for t'he ;~urposeof measuring reference: and ferrite core 2
(11) is a n auxiliary core. Accordingly, the Crwie temperature of
Curve B in Fig. 13 shows the relation expressed by (11). ferrite core 2 is xnuch higher thalz that of core 1. Terminal
After the magnetism of the ferrit'e core is recovered a t 1 1' is the power source of 20 kc which was made with
= t,, the biasvoltage Eb issupplied,let'ting the flux Royer's circuit [B] and terminal 2 2', that for the heater of
arrive at thepositive saturation. If the supplied time of the commercial frequency. Nh is a n auxiliary winding, elim-
bias voltage to the ferrite core is represented by At,, At, inat,ing the hysteresis of the heater circuit switch.
is expressed by the following equation: When the temperature iE thetank rises above the
Curie temperature, the flux of ferrite core 1 vanishes. On
At, GS N c @ m / h ' b . (1%
the other hand, t,he output volt,age induced by core 2 is
After time At,, the bias circuit is opened and t'he ferrite supplied to the output winding, N L , and makes switch
core holds the residual flux am. While the biasvoltage SW L'open"'
is supplied, if the load winding N , is opened, the voltage Tf the temperature in the t'anl: falls helom the Curie
of bias winding must supply only about one quarter the temperature, the magnetism of ferrite core 1 recovers, and
hysteresis loss of the ferrite core. Curve D in Fig. 13 shows the out'put voltages of magnetic cores 1 and 2 are added
this relat,ionship. to the opposite direction. Since no voltage is supplied on
If three strokes, namely heating, cooling, and bias volt- the 1oa.d winding N L , switch SW is closed, and the tank is
age, are repeated, the electric power can be generated on heated by the heater.
winding, ATL,in thest,roke of heat,ing. A simple elementary Figure 15 shows an example of temperature control. It
experiment has been carried out in regard to this method, is foundthat thecontrol is carried out in the range of rtO.2,'
and since the investigation is now being made, details will C; SCR can be used instead of switch S W . To set' up the
be reported at a later dat.e. temperature of the tank, ferrit'e core 1 must be exchanged.
This device is simple in construct'ion and claims an ad-
APPLICATION TO THE TEMPERATCRE CONTROL
SYSTEM vantage in getting an exact' temperature control.
As already mentioned, when heat input is given to the
ferrite cores, if the permeability vs. temperature character- CONCLUSION
istic is used for the tcmperature reference, it is possible to The ut,ility of ferrite cores which have the Curie tem-
carry out the temperaturecontrol by the use of the ferrite perature in the vicinity of the room temperature and sud-
cores with low Curie temperature. denly change the permeability vs. t,emperature character-
Figure 14 shows the circuit of the temperature control istic near the Curie t,emperature, have been described. An
proposed. To avoid any time lagwhich would be found be- overcurrentrelay,at'emperaturecontrol device, and a
tween the temperature in the tank and that of the ferrite tiniing unit for long delay were made by the author, using
core used as reference, the ferrite core was made to be a, ferrit,e cores of this kind, and are practical devices. Further-
ring-formed one, 5 mm in the inside diameter, 10 mm in the more, its application t'o a thermonlagnetic generator, by
outside diameter, and3 mm in the height. For making the improving the characteristics of the ferrite cores, is also
circuit, twocores were used, and a high-frequency magnetic considered useful.
I n conclusion, the author finds t-hat ferrite cores with
low Curie temperature are among the important materials
helping the development of a new field in electric de-
vices.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author wishes to express his sincere gratitude to
Prof. Y. Higuchi of Toholm TJniversit,y for his kind help,
and to T. Ishixuka,Tohoku lCletal Industries, Lt'd., for
the preparation of t'he ferrite cores.

REFERENCES
Warrington, A . R. van C., Prolecbive l2ela;ys. London: Chapmxn,
Fig. 14. Circuit of temperature control using ferrite cores. 1962, p 66.
Hardies, C. E., Long time delays from a single magnetic storage
core, Trans. A I E E (Communication and Electronics), vol i8,
NOV1959, pp 457-461.
Brillouin, L., and H. P. Iskenderian, Thertnomagnetic generator,
4 6.0 Elec. Gornmun., vol 25, Sep 1948, pp 300-.311.
h Elliott,, ,1. F., Thermomagneticgenerator, 1 . A p p l . Phys., vol
30, NOV1959, pp 1774-1777.
Stauss, 11. E., Efficiency o f thermomagneticgenerator, ibitl.,
Oct 1959, pp 1622-1623.
45.001
10 20 30 40 t (min) Royer, G. H., A switching transistor d-c l o a-c converter having
an outputfrequency proportionalto the d-c input voltage, Trans.
;1IEE (Communication and Eleclronics), vol 74, July 1955, pp
Fig. 15. An example of temperature control. 322-326.