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New Technology for Making Superconducting Components At the time of its proposal to the ATP, DuPont had carried out a three-year research program to develop high-temperature superconducting (HTS) materials and was debating whether to disband the effort because of its high technical uncertainty. The properties of HTS materials were still not well understood, fabrication processes had not been developed, and the technical and commercial viability of the materials had not been proven. DuPont said later that continuation of its HTS research hinged on receiving an ATP award, which the company considered an indicator of the promising nature of the work. With its ATP award,
DuPont developed thin-film HTS fabrication technology. It is generic enough
to use with a variety of HTS materials that have form, structure, and
performance properties similar to those of thallium/lead. The technology
is particularly useful when using thallium/barium or thallium/lead in
the fabrication of HTS electronics components. The company developed two
thin-film fabrication processes — a two-step approach using sputtering
and post-annealing and a single-step approach with simultaneous sputtering
and annealing. Photolithographic and ion-milling techniques are used to
form circuits and other electronic features in the films. The viability
of the two processes was demonstrated by constructing and testing several
basic electronic components, including oscillators, filters, mixers and
coplanar-designed transmission lines. Many New and Potential
HTS Products The company has begun
substantial marketing efforts and is successfully selling products. Most
of these are made with erbium/barium and thallium/barium rather than thallium/lead.
Applications requiring the higher operating-temperature capabilities of
thallium/lead HTS components have not yet developed significantly, due
in part to improved cryogenics technology that has increased the number
of application areas where the two other HTS materials are useful. DuPont has maintained
its long-term vision and continues to develop HTS electronics components
based on erbium/barium, thallium/barium and thallium/lead. The payoffs
may be coming soon, especially in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment
and possibly in terrestrial and satellite communications. HTS materials
also have potential use in nuclear magnetic resonance instruments, superconducting
quantum interference devices, and a variety of microwave applications. For superconductor technology to realize its full potential, however, more advances have to be made in the technology. DuPont continues to fund its HTS research program at significant levels. Less-Costly, More-Efficient
Electronic Equipment The benefits of the
new HTS technology are likely to be substantial and widespread. In MRI
and satellite communications, for example, the chain of events leading
from the manufacturer of the components to the end users has many steps.
At each step, some benefits from the technology are likely to accrue to
intermediate customers and end-users, who pay for only a small part of
the value they receive from the technological advance. Given the large
number of end users for MRI and satellite services, the aggregate value
of those spillover benefits is likely to be in the tens of millions of
dollars. During this project, DuPont worked with a small equipment supplier, the Kurt J. Lesker Company, to develop improved fabrication equipment for depositing HTS material on a wafer. Lesker is now making these improved machines available to other companies, as well as to DuPont.
Return to Table of Contents or go to next section. Date created: April
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