Basket winding (or basket-weave winding or honeycomb winding) is a pattern of winding electrical wire in a coil, used in making certain types of electronic components, such as inductors and transformers. The purpose of this type of winding is to minimize having adjacent turns of wire running parallel. In a basket winding the wires in successive layers of the coil cross each other at large angles, as close to 90 degrees as possible. At high frequencies, such a winding has lower values of parasitic capacitance, and less electrical resistance due to proximity effect, as compared with an ordinary winding with the same number of turns. However, the physical dimensions are greater which leads to higher leakage inductance.
Basket winding is employed in coils used at high frequencies, particularly radio frequencies. As the frequency of the electric current through a coil of wire increases, the coil has higher resistance and capacitive reactance, resulting in energy losses. In tuned circuits the increased resistance can reduce the Q_factor of the circuit, increasing the bandwidth. The parasitic capacitance can cause the coil to become self-resonant. Basket wound coils have lower values of these undesirable characteristics, and so are used in radio equipment, such as radio receivers.
Basket windings are often wound with a Litz wire, or a wire insulated with cotton or silk. This type of insulation is also important from a mechanical point of view during the winding process, because a common enamelled magnet wire would not provide sufficient surface friction to hold the subsequent turns at the large angle.[1]