Manufacturing of magnetic probe coils for DIII-D

The magnetic diagnostics program at DIII-D adds to its in-vessel installations of induction-type loops and coils almost every year. The current design of toroidal and poloidal magnetic field coils (45-50 kHz, N·A=0.06 m²) has been in existence since 1987. Many coils were installed in DIII-D during that year and are still operating and reliable today. The high reliability of the coils is owing to the use of a continuous length of mineral-insulated cable, eliminating any electrical connections inside the vacuum vessel. The geometry of the probes was designed to achieve a bandwidth of 50 kHz, despite the conducting shell formed by the stainless steel sheath of the mineral-insulated cable. The bandwidth is sensitive to the details of the cable dimensions and winding technique, and care must be taken in the fabrication in order to maintain this specification. With possible future magnetic diagnostics installations in ITER and other long-pulse machines requiring large numbers of coils and/or multiple layers per coil, the manufacturing scale-up, quality control, and the development of layered coils should all be investigated in addition to the obvious issues such as irradiation effects.