Basket winding

The winding pattern is used for radio-frequency electronic components with many parallel wires, such as inductors and transformers.

The winding pattern reduces the amount of wire running in adjacent, parallel turns.

The wires in successive layers of a basket wound coil cross each other at large angles, as close to 90 degrees as possible, which reduces energy loss due to electrical cross-coupling between wires at radio frequencies.

The basket winding method is used for coils designed for use at frequencies of 50 kHz and higher to reduce two undesirable side effects, proximity effect and parasitic capacitance, that arise in long parallel segments of current-carrying wire.

Cotton or fabric insulation is important from a mechanical point of view during the winding process, because a common enameled magnet wire does not provide sufficient surface friction between coil layers to hold the turns at large angles.