A family of new supplies for powering superconducting magnets was developed
in our institutes. As an example, two supplies are described in the paper.
One of the supplies uses superconducting, another - semiconductor-based re
petitive switches. Both supplies are able to generate 1 Volt at the high-cu
rrent side. Magnets to be powered by the supplies are made with Nb,Sn and N
bTi wires, operate at 600 and 300 Amps, have inductances of 1.2 and 1.3 Hen
ry and generate magnetic fields of 12 and 7 Tesla, respectively. Both magne
ts operate at 4 Kelvin and are bath-cooled. So far the power supplies were
tested at the operating temperature using a small sc magnet as a load. Expe
cted load curves, while ramping the current of the real magnets, are also d
iscussed. A comparison between these sc supplies and a conventional system
based on a room temperature power supply,vith (high-T-c) current leads is m
ade.