MultiPhysics Simulation of Direct Double Helix Magnets for Charged Particle Applications

Charged particle beam manipulation requires magnetic dipoles for steering and quadrupoles for focusing. Conventional magnets are currently used leading to very large and heavy systems. Miniaturization of the optic magnets would enable the development of more affordable systems and potentially portable devices. The Advanced Magnet Lab, Inc. has developed a revolutionary magnet topology and packaging allowing for a significant increase of performance in field generation and field homogeneity. Indeed, direct double helix (DDH) magnets inherited the outstanding features of double helix windings [1], while at the same time exhibit a lower resistance and improved heat transfer. DDH magnets are obtained by creating conducting paths in-situ directly from a conducting cylinder, the conductor thus created presents a variable cross-section leading to a lower overall resistance. The paper presents electro-thermal simulations of DDH magnets and explains through numerical analysis how the unmatched performance is obtained.