Ti–MgB 2 Conductor for Superconducting Space Magnets

Among the characteristics required by a spaceborne superconducting magnet, lightness and reliability are the most important. The use of titanium clad magnesium diboride conductors fulfills both the requirements: it allows avoiding helium cryogenics, it guarantees good stability, and it has density below 4500 kg/m
³
. A conductor based on a Ti–MgB
₂
tape was developed in the framework of a study on superconducting shields to protect astronauts against cosmic rays, co-funded by the European Union (EU FP7 SR2S Project). The magnet is designed to operate at 10 K and below 4 T at the conductor. The prototype tape, manufactured via
ex situ
method, is 3 mm wide and 0.5 mm thick and has 19 MgB
₂
filaments. According to the original design, a pure aluminum strip should be coupled to the tape in order to protect the conductor in case of quench. However, due to technical problems, the process was completed by soldering a copper strip on titanium. The conductor and its manufacture process are described in this paper.