A helium cooling system and a method of operating the same

摘要

A cryogenic cooling system (100) including at least one regenerator (118) comprises a heat exchanger (128) disposed within the regenerator (118) capable of extracting cooling power from the helium and a thermal link (138) coupled to the heat exchanger (128) for thermally coupling the heat exchanger (128) with a component (136), typically a hot part of the apparatus. A method of extracting cooling power from helium in such a regenerator (118) includes flowing the helium through a first portion (130) of the regenerator, flowing the helium through a heat exchanger (128) disposed between the first portion and a second portion (132) of the regenerator to transfer heat from the heat exchanger (128) to the helium, and transferring heat from a component (136) via a thermal link (138) to the heat exchanger (128). <IMAGE>