Novel supplies for powering a superconducting magnet

A family of new supplies for powering superconducting magnets was developed in our institutes. As an example, two supplies are described in the paper. One of the supplies uses superconducting, another-semiconductor-based repetitive switches. Both supplies are able to generate 1 Volt at the high-current side. Magnets to be powered by the supplies are made with Nb/sub 3/Sn and NbTi wires, operate at 600 and 300 Amps, have inductances of 1.2 and 1.3 Henry and generate magnetic fields of 12 and 7 Tesla, respectively. Both magnets operate art 4 Kelvin and are bath-cooled. So far the power supplies were tested at the operating temperature using a small sc magnet as a load. Expected load curves, while ramping the current of the real magnets, are also discussed. A comparison between these sc supplies and a conventional system based on a room temperature power supply with (high-T/sub c/) current leads is made.