A MgB₂12.5 kVA superconductor transformer

A 12.5 kVA, MgB2 superconductor transformer was designed as five alternating stacked coils between the primary and the secondary windings. Hyper Tech Research Inc. (Hyper Tech) manufactured multifilament MgB2 superconductor wire by using a patented process called the continuous tube filling and forming (CTFF) process. The CTFF MgB2 conductor was insulated with yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) using the chemical solution coating process. An all-copper former was designed and fabricated with an OD of 71 mm, ID of 42 mm and heights of 12 mm and 8 mm for primary and secondary coils, respectively. Two primary and three secondary coils were fabricated using the sol–gel insulated MgB2 wire using the W&R coil technology. One of the primary coils was tested at 4.2 K which showed better than 250 A engineering critical current. These five coils were then stacked as in the design in alternating fashion and connected and instrumented for testing. The transformer was cooled in He gas first then in liquid helium. The tests showed that the individual coils, the primary and the secondary windings performed better than the design currents. Also the open-circuit tests of the transformer showed that 1:1 transfer was achieved. This article was originally submitted for the special issue 'Selected papers from the International Conference on Superconductivity and Magnetism (ICSM2008) (Side, Turkey, 25–29 August 2008)', Superconductor Science and Technology, volume 22, issue 3.