Transport alternating current losses of BSCCO and YBCO tapes

After the discovery of HTS (High Temperature Superconductor), many types of HTS conductors have been developed. Several BSCCO tapes fabricated by PIT (Powder In Tube) method became commercially available, and the transport current loss characteristics of BSCCO tapes have been investigated by many research groups. The transport current loss characteristics of YBCO tapes, however, are not well studied. This is because measuring transport current requires tape samples over a certain length (15 cm for our own system). Many groups are currently focusing their effort on manufacturing long YBCO tape conductors, and new world records of length and current carrying capability are replacing the old ones in an increasingly fast rate. This paper deals with transport current losses of commercially available BSCCO tapes and YBCO tapes made at Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) of Korea. YBCO tapes show relatively high transport current losses. This can be explained by the fact that the YBCO tape does not consist of filaments. Measurement results of the tapes are presented with analyses and discussions.