Parasitic capacitance cancellation in filter inductors

Abstract

This paper introduces a technique for improving the high-frequency performance of filter inductors and common-mode chokes by cancelling out the effects of parasitic capacitance. This technique uses additional passive components to inject a compensation current that cancels the parasitic current, thereby improving high-frequency filtering performance. Two implementation approaches for this technique are introduced. The first implementation achieves cancellation using an additional small winding on the filter inductor and a small capacitor. This approach is effective where very high coupling of the windings can be achieved or where only moderate performance improvements are required. The second implementation utilizes a small radio frequency transformer in parallel with the filter inductor to inject cancellation currents from the compensation capacitor. This technique requires an additional component (the transformer), but can provide a high degree of cancellation. Experimental results confirm the theory in both implementations.