Commercial Coated Conductor Fabrication Based on Inclined Substrate Deposition

Abstract

Due to the complex layered architecture the fabrication of coated conductors consists of a multitude of processing steps. We present a viable and economic route to produce second generation HTS tape from the initial substrate preparation to the final metal coating. The most important and technically challenging steps are the deposition of an oriented buffer layer and the superconductor film in a reel to reel configuration. New evaporation techniques have been developed to enable reliable, high rate tape coating. Highly oriented MgO-buffer layers are realized by inclined substrate deposition (ISD) yielding an in-plane orientation of 7/spl deg/-8/spl deg/ FWHM and critical current densities up to 2.5 MA/cm/sup 2/. Buffered tape has been fabricated up to 40 m length. The subsequent HTS deposition has been performed up to 12 m and reaches current levels of 200 A/cm. High resolution critical current scans help to reveal defects and to track problems in the manufacturing process.