Tape-manufacturing system having extended operational capabilites

Abstract

A tape-manufacturing system for coating at least one tape substrate such as, for example, for the manufacture of a high-temperature superconductor (HTS) conductor is disclosed. The tape-manufacturing system includes at least two electron beam (e-beam) deposition sources, at least one assist source and, optionally, a controller. Each e-beam deposition source may be in-process repairable. Each e-beam deposition source is capable of communicating an evaporant material with at least a portion of at least one tape substrate to deposit a coating thereon. The at least one assist source is capable of communicating a beam of a species to the coating. The controller communicates with the at least two e-beam deposition sources and the at least one assist source.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates generally to a tape-manufacturing system and, more particularly, to a tape-manufacturing system for economically coating a tape substrate to manufacture, for example, a textured coating on the tape substrate. BACKGROUND OF INVENTION [0002] The discovery of ceramic-based high-temperature superconductor (HTS) materials during the 1980's opened the possibility of applying superconducting technology to electric power devices such as transmission cable, transformers, motors, and generators. The ‘high’ in HTS refers to the ability to achieve the superconducting state at temperatures attainable using inexpensive liquid nitrogen, rather than the liquid helium required by the ‘low’ temperature superconductors (LTS). Nitrogen gas, when cooled, condenses at −195.8° C. (77.36 K) and freezes at −209.86° C. (63.17 K), while helium gas condenses at −268.93° C. (4.2 K) and does not freeze at atmospheric pressure. [0003] Due to superconductivity, an HTS conductor...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] An embodiment of the present concerns an in-process repairable e-beam deposition source. This is particularly advantageous when used in a tape-manufacturing system for coating elongated substrates as the in-process repairable e-beam deposition source permits creating coatings having integrity over the lengths required to make, for example, HTS conductor practicable, as well as maintaining the integrity on such lengths economically. To that end, the e-beam deposition source may be self-contained so as to be isolatable from the tape-manufacturing system. In this manner, the integrity of a tape substrate that is being processed in the tape-manufacturing system can be maintained, while at the same time, the e-beam deposition source is repaired.

[0010] An isolation mechanism may be provided for isolating an e-beam deposition source from the tape-manufacturing system. For example, an auxiliary chamber communicating with the tape-manufacturing system may be used to accommodate the in-process reparability of an e-beam deposition source. Such auxiliary chamber is evacuatable. The isolation mechanism may further including a closeable passage communicating with an atmosphere external to the tape-manufacturing system. The closeable pas

Problems solved by technology

This is a fundamental advance in wire technology; however, to date, only short HTS conductor samples have been fabricated at high performance levels.

A major disadvantage of such an IBAD system used for manufacturing an HTS conductor is that the size of available ion beam sputter sources are limited to about 0.6 m. In order to manufacture a conductor having lengths exceeding meters, kilometers, and even hundreds of kilometers, long production runs w

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