The Department of Commerce's Advanced Technology Program (ATP) awarded American Superconductor Corp. (AMSC; Westborough, Massachusetts) a US$2 million, two-year cost-sharing grant to accelerate the scale-up of its patented, high-volume, low-cost process for manufacturing high-temperature superconductor (HTS) wires having a coated conductor wire architecture.

AMSC will use the funds to develop and implement novel thermal processing equipment, which AMSC expects will enable significant further performance and cost improvements in its coated conductor wires.

“We have developed a unique, proprietary manufacturing technique for making HTS coated conductors over a seven-year period,” said Greg Yurek, CEO of American Superconductor. “During the last quarter, we achieved breakthrough results that put us on a path to beat the price/performance ratio of copper wire. The ATP award will help us accelerate the scale-up of our manufacturing process and bring coated conductor wires to market sooner than we anticipated.”

AMSC's proprietary coated conductor process requires lower capital expenditures and focuses on producing high-performance wire at high speeds and low cost. The thermal processing equipment used in making the wire requires integrating manufacturing process control and cleanliness of a semiconductor fabrication process, the reel-to-reel web handling and process throughput of the textile industry, and the temperature capabilities of optical-fiber processing. The funding will help AMSC achieve these thermal processing goals in its coated conductor manufacturing operation.

AMSC's HTS coated conductor wires are designed as a replacement for AMSC's HTS multi-filamentary composite wire at a price-performance ratio that will broaden the use of HTS wire in electric-power applications. AMSC expects its coated conductor wires will be available in long lengths in limited volume in 2005, two to five years ahead of previous industry expectations.
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