Position control of active magnetic levitation using sphere-shaped HTS bulk for inertial nuclear fusion

We have developed an active magnetic levitation system that comprises a field-cooled disk-shaped or sphere-shaped HTS bulk and multiple ring-shaped electromagnets. In this system, the levitation height of HTS bulk can be controlled by adjusting the operating current of each electromagnet individually. Further, the application of the vertical noncontact levitation system is expected due to its levitation stability without mechanical supports. We assume that this system is applied to inertial nuclear fusion. However, one of the important issues is to achieve position control with high accuracy of the fusion fuel in order to illuminate the target evenly over the entire surface. Therefore, this system is applied to the levitation and position control of a sphere-shaped superconducting capsule containing nuclear fusion fuel. In this study, we designed and constructed a position control system for the sphere-shaped HTS bulk with a diameter of 5 mm by using numerical simulation based on hybrid finite element and boundary element analysis. We then carried out the experiment of levitation height and position control characteristics of the HTS bulk in this system. With regard to position control, accuracies within 59 ?m are obtained.