Development of superconducting tuning quadrupole corrector (MQT) prototypes for the LHC

The main quadrupoles of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are connected in families of focusing and defocusing magnets. In order to make tuning corrections in the machine a number of quadrupole corrector magnets (designated MQT) are necessary. These 56 mm diameter aperture magnets have to be compact, with a maximum length of 395 mm and a coil radial thickness of 5 to 7.5 mm, while generating a minimum field gradient of 110 T/m. Two design options have been explored, both using the "counter-winding" system developed at CERN for the fabrication of low cost corrector coils. The first design, with the poles composed of two double-pancake coils, each counter-wound using a single wire, superposed to create 4-layer coils, was developed and built by ACCEL Instruments GmbH. A second design where single coils were counter-wound using a 3-wire ribbon to obtain 6-layer coils was developed at CERN. This paper describes the two designs and reports on the performance of the prototypes during testing.