AMPeers, in partnership with UH, has received three grants totaling USD 1.6 million (two from the Department of Energy and one from the U.S. Navy) to accelerate the utilization of superconductor technology in wires.
August 07, 2021
Advanced Materials Pioneers (AMPeers) develops new superconductor wire technologies in association with the University of Houston and manufactures and delivers unique products such as round high-temperature superconductor wires for a range of applications.
One area of expertise of AMPeers is superconducting materials that exhibit zero resistance to the flow of electricity. As such, they can be very impactful in applications that can greatly benefit from high electric power density, high magnetic fields, power delivery in an ultra-compact volume, better power quality, and high energy efficiency.
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Dr. Venkat Selvamanickam, M.D. Anderson Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering and a Professor of Physics at the University of Houston, has developed the kind of unique wire, or superconducting material, necessary to enable the development of ultra- high field magnets that need hardly any power for sustained operation.
His company AMPeers in partnership with UH has received three grants totaling USD 1.6 million (two from the Department of Energy and one from the U.S. Navy) to accelerate the utilization of the technology. These grants are from the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.
The high-temperature superconducting wires can carry 300-600 times the current carrying capacity of copper wires of the same size.
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The superconductor wires, called Symmetric Tape Round (STAR), are the only superconductor wires available with a diameter of just 1-2 mm, bend radius capability of 15 mm, and high current-carrying capacity over a wide range of temperatures from 4.2 Kelvin to 77 Kelvin. Other round superconductor wires cannot be bent to such small diameters or cannot be used at temperatures much higher than 4.2 Kelvin.
The enabling technology of STAR wires is a distinctive symmetric superconductor tape technology developed together by AMPeers and UH. The tape is known as RE-Ba-Cu-O (REBCO, RE= rare earth) superconductor film.
