In many different types of applications, current inductors are a better option to consider than a capacitor. An inductor is really a choke, designed to act passively in an electrical circuit to prevent the AC or alternating current from moving past the inductor while storing this energy in a magnetic field.
In most cases, but not all, the inductor has a central core component made of either ferrite or iron, but there are other possibilities as well. Around this magnetic central core there is a coil of wires, and the central core can be a solid bar, toroidal or designed to be more like a bead.
The magnetic field created allows energy to be stored, which will then be released when the circuit collapses. In this way, the current inductors always resist a change in the flow of electrons through the circuit, creating a unique balance within the circuit.
Each of the different types of current inductors has a different capacity. The capacity of the inductor is determined by the type of material in the core, the number of coils of the wire around the coil, the actual area of the coil as well as the if the coils overlap or not. The closer together the coils are, or if they overlap, as well as the number of coils and the area of the coils is critical for higher capacity.
Applications
There are a wide range of different uses for current inductors. They are found in most types of electronic equipment as well as in switched-mode power supplies. In these types of systems, including in large power company and utility company uses, they are often used to normalize or balance the fluctuations of direct current output in the system.
These are massive inductors, but there can also be small bead-like current inductors used on electronic equipment to achieve the same balance and stability in the power.
Another important use of current inductors is in signal light sensors. Large inductors coils are placed in the road, and then when a vehicle stops over the coil, it changes the inductance of the coil as the vehicle acts like the magnetic center. This variation in the inductance is read and the lights are controlled accordingly.
In addition, current inductors can be connected to a capacitor to create a tuned circuit. This is most commonly used for radio frequency types of applications but can also be used to create very small bypass filters that allow single frequencies to be selected from larger signals.
