JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF

MOTION PICTURE ENGINEERS

Vol 43 SEPTEMBER, 1944 No. 3

HIGH-QUALITY COMMUNICATION AND

POWER TRANSFORMERS*

E. B. HARRISON**

PART ONE
POWER TRANSFORMERS AND FILTER REACTORS
The sound engineer is waging a never-ending fight against ex-
traneous noises entering a sound channel. One of the greatest
sources of noise is the complex field created by the many power
transformers and filter reactors in the system. Of the methods
of elimination, that which is aimed at the reduction of the fields at

their source isperhaps the most effective. There are several ways
of reducing, and in some instances virtually eliminating, the stray
fields radiating from these coils.
For a transformer of conventional shell-type design with a given
load rating, the shape and magnitude of the stray field depends on
several factors, among which are the size of the transformer, flux
density at which the transformer core is operated, the geometry of
the core structure, and the magnetic shielding surrounding the
structure. Since the stray field increases with the size of the trans-
former and increases with increased flux density, it follows that
there is an optimum size, other things being equal, which will result
in the lowest stray field.
In any shell-type design utilizing a single coil, this lowest stray
field will still be large enough to modulate the program in adjacent

audio transformers and tubes. Its influence can extend to audio

transformers as much as 3 to 4 ft away, which means practically that
even though the power equipment is located away from the audio
components of its own channel, it may affect other channels in
adjacent racks.

*
Presented Oct. 20, 1943, at the Technical Conference in Hollywood.
**
Altec Lansing Corporation, Hollywood.
155
156 E. B. HARRISON Vol 43, No. 3

It has been found desirable, therefore, to produce a series of trans-

formers designed for operation in crowded racks. These transformers
are built on a core-type magnetic circuit having 2 coils astatically
balanced. They occupy less space than the conventional design,
and operate at high efficiencies, that is, with low temperature rise.
Fig. 1 is a sketch of the core structure around which this type of

FIG. 1.

transformer is built. It can be shown that for the most efficient de-

signs the following approximations hold:

(1) The core loss in watts is equal to the copper loss in watts.
(2} The mean length of the magnetic circuit is equal to the mean length of the
copper circuit.

(3} The cross-sectional area of the core is equal to the cross-sectional area of
the window.

The geometry of the structure is such that the coils are long
solenoids with their magnetic axes closely spaced, resulting in an
almost perfect astatic balance of their fields. Measurements made
on transformers built around these proportions indicate that the
Sept., 1944 COMMUNICATION AND POWER TRANSFORMERS 157

field is solow that moderately shielded low-level input transformers

may operated next to them without hum pickup.
be
The narrow width of the core was chosen to insure a fairly uniform
flux distribution which is further aided by the method of stacking,

reducing the usual areas of high flux density with their resulting high
loss.
In a fully interleaved core assembly (i. e., 1 and 1) the reluctance
of the airgap at the lamination joint causes a portion of the flux to

LAMINATION JOINTS

AIR GAP ^

INTERLEAVED iai

AIR" GAP

^ r=. -=.--=- --- - ~- ^- -Jl

'-J3--
'
'

...

INTERLEAVED 282

FIG. 2.

seek a path through the adjacent laminations, raising the flux den-
sity and losses therein (Fig. 2). Now, when the extent of the inter-
leaving is reduced by stacking the laminations in pairs (2 2), the X
reluctance of the leakage path through the adjacent laminations is
increased, because the length is effectively increased, forcing a

greater portion of the flux to flow across the joint air gap. The re-
duction of high flux density areas by this method of stacking in-
creases the permeability of the total core structure as shown in Fig. 3,
where the solid line represents the permeability of the 1X1 stack,
and the dotted line that of the 2 X 2 stack.
Fig. 4 shows a transformer built around the foregoing principles.
158 E. B. HARRISON Vol 43, No. 3

Note that at all points the transformer is close to the case housing it,
providing more rapid dissipation of heat to the outside air. Note
also that almost two-thirds of the coil surface is exposed, that no
thick-walled coil sections exist, and that core heat is conducted to and
radiated fjjpm the 2 ends of the core which also are close to the
housing.

FIG. 3.

of the design in comparison

Fig. 5 illustrates the compactness
with a conventional unit of the same rating. Both transformers
were designed to operate with the same temperature rise less than
40 C. Consider particularly the comparison of the operating efficien-
cies, weights, and chassis space occupied.
TM-579 TW-604
Volt-amperes 350 360
Efficiency , 96 per cent 92 7 per cent
.

Watts dissipated 15 27.7

Weight, Ib 17Va 29V<
Chassis space, sq in. 23 47
Sept., 1944 COMMUNICATION AND POWER TRANSFORMERS 159

vSince their fields generally are of the most vicious type, being
made up of not one but many frequencies, the companion power
filter reactors' were built around the same principles of design. The

FIG. 4.

FIG. 5.

astatic balance is carried to the point of locating the air gap in the
center of the coils where the possibility of leakage is lowest (Fig. 6).
In practice, 2 stacks of U-shaped punchings are clamped together
in the coils against insulating spacers tomaintain the correct gap.
The clamps and bolts are so located that very little magnetic flux
160 E. B. HARRISON Vol 43, No. 3

passes through them (Fig. 7). The removal from the magnetic cir-
cuit of these relatively high coersive force steels eliminates all of the
harmonics generated by the common commercial type of filter choke
which is clamped together between steel frames secured
by bolts
passing through the core, all of which carry magnetic flux. The Q
of the choke is raised appreciably, so that for a given inductance

substantially better filtering action is obtained. Incidentally, audio

chokes designed on these principles have shown a Q of 70 at 1000

cycles.

FIG. 6.

PART TWO

AUDIO TRANSFORMERS

The last few years have witnessed great improvements in audio

transformer design. Not the least of these are due to the many kinds
of core material now available. Audio transformers operate at low
inductions, ranging from several thousand gausses in a high-level
output transformer down to one gauss and less in low-level input and
interstage transformers. The low induction hysteresis and eddy
current losses must be small, and the initial permeability should be
high. Since eddy current losses vary inversely with the resistivity
of the core material, and as the square of the thickness of the lamina-
tions, the core stock must also have high electrical resistivity, and be
used in thin sheets.
Sept., 1944 COMMUNICATION AND POWER TRANSFORMERS 161

The presence of eddy currents in the core results in a phenomenon

known as skin effect or shielding effect. This effect is merely the

FIG. 7.

FIG. 8.

observed result of the loading caused by the secondary current cir-

culating around the individual laminations. The counter-emf
generated by these currents prevents the penetration of flux to the
center of the plate or lamination. This means that as the frequency
162 E B.HARRISON Vol 43, No. 3

is increased, the effective core area decreases, the total flux is less,
the permeability is less, and the inductance of the winding goes

down.
To take full advantage of the high initial permeability the core
should be laid out with as short a path as possible, having a minimum
of high reluctance joints, best located actually within the windings

surrounding parts of the core. It is fortunate that the requirements

for small-size high inductance transformers lie in the low-level field

8
f444lH7 wfH | EM|^^
?.

TP-2oMtfUflSf ORMF.ft '<

tsveu * tsee

FIG. 9.

where the transformer has nothing to do but present to the tube

of the input signal voltage,
grid a considerably enlarged facsimile
because it is frequently the case that high copper insertion losses are
built into such a design.
The windings surrounding the core have, of necessity, distributed
capacity across themselves, between themselves,
and to the core
and the case. These capacities are nearly always unequal, that is,
the effective capacities across the 2 ends of a coil are unlike, which
in the case of a push-pull transformer will, as the frequency in-
creases, cause increasingly unequal voltages to be impressed on
Sept., MM4 COMMUNICATION AND POWER TRANSFORMERS 161$

the tube grids. The deviation usually is quite pronounced well

below the frequency of resonance, and the point at which a measur-
able difference is found should be taken as the upper limit of the
range which the transformer can cover.
The capacitive balance between the windings can be improved
at least controlled by the introduction of shield windings or
sheets. Sometimes the shield is connected to a section of the wind-
ing; more often it is tied to ground. Frequently windings are placed
in a coil at a place where they act as shield windings because in the
circuit in which they are used they are connected externally to

ground.
When the shield is introduced between the primary and secondary
windings, and connected to ground, electrostatic shielding is also

.__-

FIG. 10.

obtained, which prevents the transmission of incoming longitudinal

currents past the barrier thus set up.
Since magnetic flux is not only in the core, but also linking every
part of the winding, leakage links are present, causing the induction
of a lesser voltage in some coils than in others with equal turns. For
this reason each winding must be symmetrically located with respect
to the other windings. In the case of a push-pull transformer, both
secondary windings must cut the same amount of leakage flux, and
the leakage flux around the start of the primary must be the same
as the leakage flux around the end of the primary winding. It is
this leakage flux which does not thread all of the windings of all of
the coils, that is responsible for the leakage reactance in a trans-
former, resulting in a drooping response at high frequencies. Many
transformers have had incorporated in their design just the proper
amount of leakage reactance to resonate with the high distributed
164 E. B. HARRISON Vol 43, No. 3

capacity across the secondary windings at a predetermined high

frequency. Such a transformer will show an excellent frequency
response characteristic, but will not have the same time constant
for all frequencies. Neither will it reflect a constant load to the line.
These faults can be only partially corrected by secondary loading,
as a loss of high frequencies is sure to result.
The windings on each side of a balanced transformer must have
equal resistance. In the case of a symmetrical coil arrangement this

usually follows as a matter of course. However, in some designs of a

special nature where one part of a coil is wound on top of another,

it may be necessary to change the wire size to accomplish the desired
result.

r '~
f r. r
....
[.[[ rffp f
f rfi'fff .!*
ri'M'i'jii [ f[[[[f
TBS -|o^
4
: ts^ ". 1*0 TOPOO

LEVEL -2SS OB

FIG. 11.

In the effort to keep the over-all size of a transformer small, very

fine wires are used in the high-impedance windings. These wires are
also reduced in size because the spacing between winding layers
must be large to keep the distributed capacity low. The presence
of any moisture in the coil or in the paper insulation would seriously
impair the balance between the coils and the high-frequency response
of the transformer. This moisture would also facilitate electrolytic
action between the bare coil ends where they are attached to the lead
wires. It is necessary, therefore, that the coil be thoroughly desic-
cated and then sealed.
This is accomplished by a vacuum impregnation system in which
the coils are heated under pressure and then maintained in a heated
condition at a high vacuum from 12 to 16 hr. While still heated and
Sept., 1944 COMMUNICATION AND POWER TRANSFORMERS 105

under vacuum the transformers are immersed in a high melting point

amorphous wax which has been highly refined to remove impurities.
Pressure is then applied to the surface of the hot fluid wax to force
it and between the laminations. The layer paper be-
into the coil
comes a framework to support an insulating layer of wax, each in-
dividual wire is fully coated, and the individual laminations are
insulated from each other by a coat of wax. The wax chosen for
this purpose has a low dielectric constant, lower than any of the

plastic films except polystyrene. It is sufficiently plastic at all oper-

ating temperatures, even those below zero, to prevent cracking.

Long life is assured.
Fig. 8 illustrates an output transformer (TP-204) designed for
operation between a single-ended or push-pull tube, and a line in the
range between 20 db and -f 20 db level. Because this rather small

FIG. 12.

transformer has to handle large signals, many turns of wire per volt
of signal were required to keep the flux density low, making it neces-

sary to lengthen the magnetic path to keep the inductance of the

windings down to the proper value. In addition, the mean length
of the copper circuit was kept low to reduce the series resistance in-
sertion loss.Since the winding length was quite long, the high-im-
pedance primary winding was broken up into several pieces to reduce
the developed voltage per layer, and consequently the effective dis-
tributed capacity. Under certain conditions of operation the
magnetic flux leakage near the ends of the long legs of the core could
become great enough to develop an appreciable leakage reactance.
To prevent this and retain good high-frequency performance the
tubes surrounding the core, and on which the coils are wound, have
built into them an eddy current shield, consisting of a single wrap
of heavy sheet copper with an overlapped, insulated high reluctance

joint (Fig. 8A).

166 E. B. HARRISON Vol 43, No. 3

The astatically balanced construction also reduces external hum

pickup which is down about 30 db from an uncased shell-type design
of corresponding size. The entire unit is potted in a 3-section case
which provides an additional 30 db of shielding. The performance
of this transformer over a wide range of operating levels is shown
in Fig. 9.

Fig. 10 illustrates a small input transformer (TBB-102) designed

for operation at a 35 db level. The response measured at 22 db
and 65 db shown in Fig. 11. A core was chosen with a very short
is

magnetic path and with lap joints located near the center of the
coil structure. A large core area was chosen to keep the operating

FIG. 13.

flux densities at low values: of the order of gausses rather than

hundreds of gausses. The choice of core permitted the winding of a
small-size coil which even with its small spacing between layers has
a low distributed capacity. The thickness of the laminations chosen
allows the development of a small quantity of eddy current which,
acting on this short magnetic length core, effectively limits the high-
frequency inductance of the windings, permitting excellent low-
frequency response at low core densities without objectionably re-
ducing the high-frequency response. Sheet copper shielding is used
between the primary and the secondary windings, and is so spaced
in the coil structure that the capacities from both ends of every coil
to ground are equal.
Sept., 1944 COMMUNICATION AND POWER TRANSFORMERS 167

A transformer of this sort with its

high operating impedances,
in this instance 70,000 ohms, and
consequent sensitivity to ex-
its

ternal fields, needs adequate shielding. For this purpose the trans-
former is cased in a seamless, drawn, round can of high permeability
alloy. Surrounding this high permeability can is a heavy short-
circuiting turn of copper. This assembly goes into another can of
high permeability alloy surrounded by copper, and finally into
a third high permeability can. Fig. 12 is an exploded view of the

assembly, which is then vacuum impregnated and potted in its pro-

tective case. This type of shielding is good for about 30 db per can
of high permeability alloy, the entire assembly attenuating external
fields about 90 db.
A companion interstage transformer has been developed with the
same characteristics and size as the transformer illustrated. It is de-
signed to operate single ended or push-pull between 10,000 and
40,000 ohms.
shows the frequency response characteristic of a trans-
Fig. 13
former which is an outstanding example of wide frequency range and

excellent balance combined with light weight. It is designed for

operation at 10 db to zero level, has electrostatic shielding between

the primary and secondary windings, and is potted within a 30 db
shield can. Excellent high-frequency balance is obtained across the
2 halves of the secondary, being less than 1 per cent at 55,000 cycles,
and only 2 per cent at 60,000 cycles. No unbalance at lower fre-
quencies is measurable. The transformer is potted in a case !
3
/4 X
!
3
/4 X 2 3 /4 in. and weighs 10 oz.