Impedance

Losses – Q factor

  • An ideal inductor has no resistance to d.c.  In practice there will be losses due to wire resistance, core losses (due to induced currents in conductive cores) and skin effect, whereby as frequency increases a.c. tends to flow only on the conductor surface
  • The ratio of reactance to resistive losses for an inductor is called the Q-factor
              Q = X ÷ R   [Q has no units]
  • It is a measure of the “goodness” of the inductor or circuit