Infinity Physics, LLC SBIR Phase I Award, June 2021

The innovation is to develop revolutionary manufacturing to produce ASCC™-HF (advanced superconducting (SC) cables for high fields) for fusion, the first ever utility grade commercial SC cables. Our manufacturing process reduces stress via Artificial Intelligence (AI) based manufacturing for a Human Robot Interaction (HRI) which allows improved performance and low fabrication costs as needed for fusion. Beyond transmission applications, SC cable cores can be wound into magnets thereby becoming SC components delivering greatly increased magnetic fields. The result is the ability to create DC to transient based reliable devices from electric transmission lines to large magnets. The successful outcome of this project is an SC cable that enables new and more capable fusion cable opportunities and thereby supports clean energy production. Phase I focuses on the ASCC-HF core. Phases II & III focus on the complete ASCC-HF and supporting systems. The Phase I goal is to start analyzing, designing, and developing a means of safely winding HTS in a manner that minimizes HTS cable reactance for maximum power operation. The team will develop state-of-the-art SC cable configurations using a new winding tool to extract a new level of reliability and production efficiency. Analyses and simulations will be created to obtain associated performance and cost data for commercial feasibility. Phase I effort focuses on advancing the SC media configuration to allow transient operation. Testing involves pre- and post-wound media elements. Business efforts include verification of market needs and identification of a partner to produce the cryostat and elements to provide cable strength and flexibility specifications. The Phase II goal is proving the commercial viability of ASCC- HF. Phase II develops a product suitable for cryogenic function testing and a partner full power testing. Phase III goal is to commercialize ASCC-HF starting with fusion needs. Phase I establishes partners, commercialization strategy, and technical risk reduction. State-of-the-art magnetic modeling software guides the design of the high temperature superconductor cable-based demonstrator device. After fabricating cable cores building the demonstrator, successful operation and test results will validate the magnetic model. Using the validated modeling tool, Phase II will analyze, design, and build a full-scale liquid nitrogen cooled, superconducting, commercially viable prototype. Our civilization consumes greater amounts of power and in increasing electrical proportions. Fusion energy is at the pinnacle of this demand with an increasing global impact. There is a growing need to address the estimated world electricity consumption increase from 20 today to more than 40 trillion kWh/year by 2040. Higher fusion energy magnetic fields allow greater fusion power plant output. A primary limitation of fusion energy has been addressed by our team. Fusion requires innovative advanced superconductor (SC) manufacturing processes that have a high potential for improved conductor performance with low fabrication costs. Awaiting SC cables and cable magnets, the underserved researchers at national labs are anxious to develop applications such as higher field quality magnets for plasma confinement and are troubled by the state of the art in SC cable fabrication technology limiting use of the new SC materials. Material/geometry imperfections in the cable and cable magnet combine with imperfections in the wind to limit capabilities of generating high fields and pulsed fields. Research needs currently exceed technology of manufacturing methods for large SC cables and cable magnets.