Cryogenic Power Control/Drive IC for Quench Protection

Statement of the problem or situation that is being addressed in your application High cost of operation and management is the largest factor for high-temperature superconducting magnets and Alphacoreĺs proposed technology addresses this need by enhancing Quench detection and protection of critical technologies for using high-temperature superconductors (HTS) in particle accelerators. Alphacore is developing a device that is a low-profile, lightweight, high efficiency, mixed-signal (analog/digital) Cryogenic Power Control/Drive IC for Quench Protection as an application-specific IC (ASIC) with drives external GaN FETs that addresses DOEĺs demand for Innovative ways at current control and energy extraction systems operating at cryogenic temperatures. The developed IC will result in a reduced component count, thus reducing failure modes and PCB area, and enabling over-voltage protection, fault tolerance, load monitoring, and control and status monitoring by a remote power system controller. General statement of how this problem is being addressed The approach will significantly reduce the number of wires going in and out of the cryogenic chamber. Quench detection and protection are critical technologies for using high-temperature superconductors (HTS) in particle accelerators. Recent studies suggest that real-time current distribution monitoring between HTS cable sub- elements is a promising way of detecting a quench, especially in cases where current sharing between cable sub- elements is weak or absent. What is to be done in Phase I? Alphacore will develop a fully cryogenic integrated circuit implementing current distribution monitoring, digital feedback, and active current drivers. The system will operate at temperatures down to 4.2 K and realize a novel real-time quench protection paradigm fully integrated with the HTS magnet. We aim to make our IC device capable of processing signals from different kinds of magnet diagnostic instrumentation like Hall sensors, fiber optics, ultrasonic or radio-frequency based techniques, allowing in situ algorithm re-programming and interfacing with the existing large-scale magnet protection systems. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits The biggest application for superconductivity is in producing the large-volume, stable, and high-intensity magnetic fields required for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR). These two main applications represent a multibillion-dollar market supported by universities for HEP experimentation, product developers, medical equipment manufacturers, and service providers of pharmaceutical interests. Commercial fusion is another area of interest for our application.