Various process technologies for manufacturing power inductors are under development. The core goal is to increase the mixing ratio of the soft magnetic powder in the epoxy, and to uniformly disperse it in a molding-type power inductor, manufactured by the injection molding method. In this study, we investigated the effect of dispersant and silane on the dispersion of soft magnetic metal powders in epoxy. We added 0.6 wt% of dispersant and 2.0 wt% of silane, and an excellent dispersibility resulted. Under the conditions of 0.3 wt% of dispersant and 0.5 wt% of silane, we added both dispersant and silane together to observe the effect of their interaction on dispersibility. Similarly, the addition of 0.3 wt% of dispersant and 0.1 wt% of silane resulted in a sharp increase in viscosity, considered to be due to the interaction of the dispersant and silane. The addition of 0.1 wt% of dispersant with 0.5 wt% of silane resulted in a sharp rise in viscosity, and sedimentation-height decreased sharply due to the dispersion optimization.

A molding-type power inductor is an inductor that uses a hybrid material that is prepared by mixing a ferrite metal powder coated with an insulating layer and an epoxy resin, which is injected into a coil-embedded mold and heated and cured. The fabrication of molding-type inductors requires various techniques such as for coil formation and insertion, improving the magnetic properties of soft magnetic metal powder, coating an insulating film on the magnetic powder surface, and increasing the packing density by well dispersing the powder in the epoxy resin. Among these aspects, researches on additives that can disperse the metal soft magnetic powder having the greatest performance in the epoxy resin with high charge have not been reported yet. In this study, we investigated the effect of silanes, KBM-303 and KBM-403, and a commercial dispersant on the dispersion of metal soft magnetic powders in epoxy resin. The sedimentation height and viscosity were measured, and it was confirmed that the silane KBM-303 was suitable for dispersion. For this silane, the packing density was as high as about 72.49%. Moreover, when 1.2 wt% of dispersant BYK-103 was added, the packing density was about 80.5%.

There is growing interest in power inductors in which metal soft magnetic powder and epoxy resin are combined. In this field, the process technology for increasing the packing density of magnetic particles in an injection molding process is very important. However, little research has been reported in this regard. In order to improve the packing density, we investigated and compared the sedimentation heights of pastes for three types of soft magnetic alloy powders as a function of the mixing ratios and the type of resin used. Experimental results showed that the packing density was the highest (71.74%) when the mixing ratio was 80：16：4 (Sendust：Fe-Si：CIP) according to the particle size using an SE-4125 resin. In addition, the packing density was found to be inversely related to the layer separation distance. As a result, it was confirmed that the dispersion of solid particles in the paste was important for curing; however, the duration of the curing process can greatly affect the packing density of the final composite.