Superconducting 13 cm corrector magnets for the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)

A total of 72 corrector magnets of 13 cm aperture and 0.5 m length are required in RHIC to correct for field errors in the interaction region quadrupoles and for other global corrections. The coils for these magnets were wound on a flat substrate using a computer controlled machine. Each corrector has four such coils of multipolar orders ranging from the dipole through the dodecapole, wrapped onto support tubes and concentrically assembled inside an iron yoke. There are five different model types depending on the combination of coils used. A critical issue was the alignment of the magnetic centers and the field angles of various coils. Adjustable shims were incorporated in the design to deal with unacceptable misalignments that could result from construction tolerances. Each magnet was partially assembled with nominal shims and was warm-measured with a rotating coil system. The shims were then adjusted as necessary to keep the field angles within /spl plusmn/1 mrad, and the relative alignment of the magnetic centers within /spl plusmn/0.2 mm. The field error harmonics are typically below 1% of the dominant multipole term at a reference radius of 40 mm, with some exceptions. All the magnets were tested for reliable operation at 4.35 K by performing bipolar power cycles to the maximum test current of 70 A for the dipole and 100 A for all the other coils, well above the maximum operating current of 50 A.