Apparatus for self-sufficiently cooling high temperature superconducting components

US5615557A · kind A · utility

Assignees

• Institut fuer Luft- und Kaeltetechnik Gemeinnuetzige Gesellschaft mbH · DE
• Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Armin Binneberg · Freital, DE
• Johannes Neubert · Dresden, DE
• Gabriele Spoerl · Dresden, DE
• Walter Wolf · Weilheim in Oberbayern, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Sep 22, 1994
• Grant date: Apr 1, 1997
• Expiry date: Sep 22, 2014

Classification

• Technology area (CPC F): Mechanical Engineering; Lighting; Heating
• CPC primary: F25D19/006
• WIPO field: Other consumer goods
• WIPO sector: Other fields

Abstract

A cooling apparatus especially for cooling high-temperature-superconducting lectronic components includes a cold gas cooling machine, such as a Stirling machine, thermally connected to a pressure vessel serving as a cold reservoir vessel. The pressure vessel contains a working medium having a triple point in the temperature range from about 60K to about 90K and a critical temperature at least as high as the maximum operating room temperature of the apparatus. The working medium is propane, for example. A cooling surface of the electronic component is thermally connected to the pressure vessel. In the method of operating the apparatus, the electronic component does not require continuous cooling. During a charging or refrigerating phase, the cooling machine freezes the working medium. Then during a useful cooling phase, the cooling machine is switched off and the electronic component is operated while being cooled by the frozen working medium.