Patent ID: 8258760

Claim:
A superconducting synchronous machine having rotor windings formed from a superconducting material, and an exciter assembly for supplying a field current to the superconducting rotor windings, the exciter assembly comprising: a pulse transformer having a primary winding, a secondary winding and a tertiary winding; a switched mode power supply for supplying a primary pulsed ac voltage to the primary winding of the pulse transformer; a rectifier for deriving a pulsed dc voltage by synchronous rectification of a secondary pulsed ac voltage supplied by the secondary winding of the pulse transformer; a pair of transfer leads for supplying the pulsed dc voltage derived by the rectifier to the superconducting rotor windings; and a controller for controlling synchronous rectification of the secondary pulsed ac voltage by the rectifier based on a signal from the tertiary winding of the pulse transformer.