High-field superconducting magnets made possible by advances in commercial High-temperature Superconductor (HTS) production are of interest in a range of applications. These include magnetically-confined thermonuclear fusion, high-power electric motors, medical resonance imaging, and other diagnostic applications. Such magnets can be energized efficiently using flux pumps. Flux pumps are high-current superconducting power supplies for energizing inductive loads. Transformer-rectifier flux pumps benefit from smaller input currents to reduce cryogenic heat load requirements and can charge and maintain large currents in superconducting magnets. This makes transformer-rectifier flux pumps desirable to reduce the size, cost, and cryogenic footprint of high-field magnet applications.
Here, we report on a new HTS flux pump using a full-wave, centre-tap transformer-rectifier circuit topology, rectified utilizing applied DC magnetic field switches. Experimental results are reported and compared to a numeric, electrical model. We then present physical interpretations of these results in the context of achieving higher currents.