General Electric Company

Global Life Sciences Solutions USA LLC

Superpower, Inc.

Ge Precision Healthcare LLC

Susumu Mine

Minfeng Xu

Ye Bai

Evangelos Trifon Laskaris

Anbo Wu

Paul St Mark Shadforth Thompson

Weston Blaine Griffin

Reginald Donovan Smith

Xiaohua Zhang

Kenneth Roger Conway

Xing Yuan

Gene Conte

Yuan Xing

A current lead assembly for minimizing heat load to a conduction cooled superconducting magnet during a ramp operation is provided. The current lead assembly includes a vacuum chamber having a through hole to enable a first end of a current lead contact to remain outside the vacuum chamber and a second end of the current lead contact to penetrate within the vacuum chamber. A vacuum boundary wall is located between the vacuum chamber and the current lead contact. At least one superconducting magnet is arranged inside of the vacuum chamber and includes a magnet lead. A second end of the current lead contact is coupled to the magnet lead via an internal lead. A vacuum cap is removably disposed to sealingly encompass therein the first end of the current lead contact during a first state of operation. The first end of the current lead contact is arranged to contact a power supply during a second state of operation, wherein the contact occurs exterior the vacuum chamber.

Current lead assembly for cryogenic apparatus

Provided are techniques that may include a disposable magnetic cell isolation holder having one or more passages that accommodate a magnetic retention material to facilitate magnetic cell isolation without adjustment of magnetic field parameters between isolation procedures using different magnetic particle sizes. When the magnetic cell isolation holder is coupled to a magnetic field generator, a first passage corresponding to a smaller particle size is positioned in a magnetic field where the magnetic field characteristics are different relative to a second passage, of a second holder or in the same holder, for use with another bead size.

Magnetic cell isolation techniques

A persistent current switch system is presented. One embodiment of the persistent current switch system includes a vacuum chamber having a winding unit and dual cooling paths. The dual cooling paths are configured to circulate a coolant flow. The dual cooling paths are defined by a first cooling path and a second cooling path. The first cooling path includes a solid thermal component disposed in direct contact with the winding unit and the second cooling path includes a cooling tube disposed in direct contact with the winding unit and configured to circulate a coolant therein. The dual cooling paths cool the temperature of the winding unit below the threshold temperature to transition the persistent current switch system from the first mode to the second mode. A method of for cooling a winding unit in a persistent current switch system and a switching system including dual cooling paths are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for cooling a superconducting switch using dual cooling paths

There is set forth herein a superconducting lead assembly comprising: a positive superconducting wire; a negative superconducting wire, wherein the positive superconducting wire is configured to conduct inflow current to a cryogenic apparatus and wherein the negative superconducting wire is configured to conduct outflow current away from the cryogenic apparatus; and an electrically insulating separator, wherein the positive superconducting wire and the negative superconducting wire are arranged proximately one another and on opposite sides of the electrically insulating separator for cancellation of electromagnetic forces attributable to current flowing simultaneously in opposite directions within the positive superconducting wire and the negative superconducting wire, and wherein a length of the superconducting lead assembly is flexible. In one embodiment the positive superconducting wire and the negative superconducting wire can include high temperature superconducting (HTS) material.

Flexibile superconducting lead assembly

In embodiments of the invention, a superconductor lead is configured to have less ohmic heating by its own current and less heat conduction from room temperature to cryogenic temperature, where a cryogenic apparatus is located. The superconducting lead with no ohmic resistance and low thermal conductivity disclosed herein maximizes current capacity by placing superconductors in parallel, each having equal current. Thus, the resistances are controlled to provide uniform current distribution through each superconductor of the high temperature superconducting (HTS) lead.

Current lead for cryogenic apparatus

A vacuum feed-through assembly and a method for manufacturing the same including a conductor having a threaded outer diameter end, a plastic seal having a threaded inner diameter matching the threaded outer diameter end of the conductor, and an epoxy to epoxy bond the threaded inner diameter of the plastic seal to the threaded outer diameter end of the conductor.

Vacuum feed-through assembly

A current lead assembly for minimizing heat load to a conduction cooled superconducting magnet during a ramp operation is provided. The current lead assembly includes a vacuum chamber having a through hole to enable a retractable current lead having a retractable contact to penetrate within the vacuum chamber. A superconducting magnet is arranged inside of the vacuum chamber and includes a magnet lead. A current contact is arranged inside of the vacuum chamber beneath the through-hole and is coupled to the magnet lead via a thermal connector. The current contact is supported by a thermal isolation support structure coupled to an inside wall of the vacuum chamber. An actuator assembly is provided to contact the retractable contact with the current contact, where connection occurs at ambient temperature inside of the thermal isolation support structure.

Retractable current lead

An isolation transformer is introduced into a matrix fault current limiter (MFCL) and is used to couple elements in trigger matrices and current limiting matrices. The isolation transformer can either be a voltage step-up or step-down configuration. In step-up configurations, the increased voltage supplied to the current limiting elements improves the quenching of the superconductor. In step-down configurations, current limiting elements are subject to lower voltage potentials thereby reducing the electrical insulation requirement between the trigger matrix and the current limiting matrix. In addition, the voltage amplification coefficient of each isolation transformer can vary for different columns of the current limiting matrix to maximize the current limiting performance.

Matrix current limiter with transformer configurations

A method and apparatus for providing cryogenic cooling to HTS devices, in particular those that are used in high-voltage electric power applications. The method involves pressurizing liquid cryogen to above one atmospheric pressure to improve its dielectric strength, while sub-cooling the liquid cryogen to below its saturation temperature in order to improve the performance of the HTS components of the device. An apparatus utilizing such a cooling method consists of a vessel that contains a pressurized gaseous cryogen region and a sub-cooled liquid cryogen bath, a liquid cryogen heating coupled with a gaseous cryogen venting scheme to maintain the pressure of the cryogen to a value in a range that corresponds to optimum dielectric strength of the liquid cryogen, and a cooling system that maintains the liquid cryogen at a temperature below its boiling point to improve the performance of HTS materials used in the device.

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Niskayuna, NY, United States of America

Susumu Mine