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Superconducting Technology Assessment - nitrd

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Another issue is the cost of the refrigeration. Buildings and infrastructure may be a major cost factor for large<br />

amounts of refrigeration. Effort should be made to reduce the refrigeration at 4 K and at higher temperatures since<br />

the cost (infrastructure and ownership) is direct function of the amount of heat to be removed (Figure 11).<br />

Refridgerator Capital Cost in 1997 Dollars (M$)<br />

100<br />

10<br />

1<br />

.1<br />

.01<br />

.0001<br />

Cost (M$) = 1.77 Refridgeration (kW)**0.7<br />

.001<br />

.01<br />

Figure 11. The cost of various refrigerators as a function of the refrigeration.<br />

One key issue is the availability of manufacturers. The largest manufacturer of 4 K coolers is Sumitomo in Japan.<br />

Sumitomo has bought out all of its competitors except for Cryomech. There No American company has made large<br />

helium refrigerator or liquefier in the last 10 years, the industrial capacity to manufacture large helium plants<br />

having died with the <strong>Superconducting</strong>-Super-Collider in 1993. Development funding may be needed for U.S.<br />

companies to insure that reliable American coolers will be available in the future. Development toward a 10 W or<br />

larger 4 K cooler would be desirable to enable a supercomputer with a modular cryogenic unit.<br />

Power Distribution and Cables<br />

SFQ circuits are DC powered. Due to the low voltage (mV level), the amount of current to be supplied is in the<br />

range of few Amps for small scale systems and can be easily kiloAmps for large scale systems. Therefore, special<br />

precaution needs to be taken to provide DC power to the system.<br />

Large currents require low DC resistances that translate to large of amount of metal lines. However lower thermal<br />

conductance implies high resistance cables, since the thermal conductance of a metallic line is inversely proportional<br />

to the electrical resistance. High electrical resistance gives high Joule heating for dc bias lines and high attenuation<br />

for ac I/O lines. Therefore, each I/O design must be customized to find the right balance between thermal and<br />

electrical properties. Reliable cable attach for thousands of connection requires also cost efficient assembly<br />

procedures with high yield.<br />

.1<br />

1<br />

10<br />

10<br />

239

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