In electronics, a ferrite core is a type of magnetic core made of ferrite on which the windings of electric transformers and other wound components such as inductors are formed. It is used for its properties of high magnetic permeability coupled with low electrical conductivity (which helps prevent eddy currents). Because of their comparatively low losses at high frequencies, they are extensively used in the cores of RF transformers and inductors in applications such as switched-mode power supplies, and ferrite loopstick antennas for AM radio receivers.
There are two broad applications for ferrite cores which differ in size and frequency of operation: signal transformers, which are of small size and higher frequencies, and power transformers, which are of large size and lower frequencies. Cores can also be classified by shape, such as toroidal cores, shell cores or cylindrical cores.
The ferrite cores used for power transformers work in the low frequency range (1 to 200 kHz usually) and are fairly large in size, can be toroidal, shell, or shaped like the letters ‘C’, ‘D’, or ‘E’. They are useful in all kinds of electronic switching devices – especially power supplies from 1 Watt to 1000 Watts maximum, since more powerful applications are usually out of range of ferritic single core and require grain oriented lamination cores.
The ferrite cores used for signals have a range of applications from 1 kHz to many MHz, perhaps as much as 300 MHz, and have found their main application in electronics, such as in AM radios and RFID tags.