DESIGN OF A NDE INSTRUMENTATION PROTOTYPE WITH HIGH-TEMPERATURE SQUIDS

Eddy currents non-destructive evaluation (NDE) consists in the use of electromagnetic techniques through which the inspection is carried out by detecting magnetic anomalies in the material under examination. Th e exploitation of the very high sensitivity of SQUID superconducting m agnetometers to magnetic flux variations makes it an interesting and p romising candidate for magnetic field detection. SQUID (superconductin g quantum interference device) magnetometry can allow to overcome the traditional limits due to the lack of sensitivity in conventional elec tromagnetic NDE techniques. In this paper we present a new project con cerning the design of a prototype of a high-temperature SQUID-based ND E instrumentation and its mains applications.