PERFORMANCE
OF
COMPLETED
PROJECTS
STATUS REPORT
NUMBER 1
NIST SPECIAL PUBLICATION 950-1
Economic Assessment Office
Advanced Technology Program
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899
William F. Long
Business Performance Research Associates, Inc.
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
March 1999
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Executive Summary
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 - Overview of Completed Projects
Characteristics
of the Projects
Timeline of Expected ATP Project
Activities and Impacts
Gains in Technical Knowledge
Dissemination of New Knowledge
Commercialization of the New Technology
Broad-Based Economic Benefits
CHAPTER 2 - Biotechnology
Aastrom
Biosciences, Inc.
Aphios Corporation
Molecular Simulations, Inc.
Thermo Trilogy Corporation
Tissue Engineering, Inc.
CHAPTER 3 - Chemicals and Chemical Processing
BioTraces,
Inc.
CHAPTER 4 - Discrete Manufacturing
Auto
Body Consortium (Joint Venture)
HelpMate Robotics, Inc.
PreAmp Consortium (Joint Venture)
Saginaw Machine Systems, Inc.
CHAPTER 5 - Electronics
Accuwave
Corporation
AstroPower, Inc.
Cree Research, Inc.
Cynosure, Inc.
Diamond Semiconductor Group, LLC
FSI International, Inc.
Galileo Corporation
Hampshire Instruments, Inc. (Joint Venture)
Illinois Superconductor Corporation
Light Age, Inc.
Lucent Technologies, Inc.
Multi-Film Venture (Joint Venture)
Nonvolatile Electronics, Inc.
Spire Corporation
Thomas Electronics, Inc.
CHAPTER 6 - Energy and Environment
American
Superconductor Corporation
Armstrong World Industries, Inc.
E.I. duPont de Nemours & Company
Michigan Molecular Institute
CHAPTER 7 - Information, Computers, and Communications
Communication Intelligence
Corporation #1
Communication Intelligence Corporation #2
Engineering Animation, Inc.
ETOM Technologies, Inc.
Mathematical Technologies, Inc.
Torrent Systems, Inc.
CHAPTER 8 - Materials
AlliedSignal, Inc.
Geltech Incorporated
IBM Corporation
APPENDICES
Appendix
A: Development of New Knowledge and Early Commercial Products
and Processes
Appendix
B: Terminated Projects
END NOTES
End Notes
Click here
for PDF version of report.
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E.I. duPont de Nemours & Company
Thallium/Lead Thin Films for Advanced Superconducting Electronic
Devices
| Superconductivity holds
great promise for reducing energy consumption in practically
any process that uses or transports electricity. Radar components,
power transmission lines, communications satellites, and a host
of electronic and electrical devices, for example, are good
candidates for superconductor applications. |
New Technology for
Making Superconducting Components
At the time of its proposal to the
ATP, DuPont had carried out a three-year research program to develop
high-temperature superconducting (HTS) materials and was debating
whether to disband the effort because of its high technical uncertainty.
The properties of HTS materials were still not well understood,
fabrication processes had not been developed, and the technical
and commercial viability of the materials had not been proven. DuPont
said later that continuation of its HTS research hinged on receiving
an ATP award, which the company considered an indicator of the promising
nature of the work.
With its ATP award, DuPont developed
thin-film HTS fabrication technology. It is generic enough to use
with a variety of HTS materials that have form, structure and performance
properties similar to those of thallium/lead. The technology is
particularly useful when using thallium/barium or thallium/lead
in the fabrication of HTS electronics components. The company developed
two thin-film fabrication processes - a two-step approach using
sputtering and post-annealing and a single-step approach with simultaneous
sputtering and annealing. Photolithographic and ion-milling techniques
are used to form circuits and other electronic features in the films.
The viability of the two processes was demonstrated by constructing
and testing several basic electronic components, including oscillators,
filters, mixers and coplanar-designed transmission lines.
Many New and Potential
HTS Products
DuPont has developed six electronic-component
products: thin films of two or three inches in diameter made on
HTS substrates of erbium/barium, thallium/barium or thallium/lead.
All six of these products use the new HTS thin-film fabrication
technology developed in the ATP-funded project. In addition, the
company usually fabricates electronic components on the thin-film
wafers, cuts the wafers into discrete components and encases them
in metal casings, all according to customer specifications.
The company has begun substantial marketing
efforts and is successfully selling products. Most of these are
made with erbium/barium and thallium/barium rather than thallium/lead.
Applications requiring the higher operating-temperature capabilities
of thallium/lead HTS components have not yet developed significantly,
due in part to improved cryogenics technology that has increased
the number of application areas where the two other HTS materials
are useful.
DuPont has maintained its long-term
vision and continues to develop HTS electronics components based
on erbium/barium, thallium/barium and thallium/lead. The payoffs
may be coming soon, especially in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
equipment and possibly in terrestrial and satellite communications.
HTS materials also have potential use in nuclear magnetic resonance
instruments, superconducting quantum interference devices and a
variety of microwave applications.
For superconductor technology to realize
its full potential, however, more advances have to be made in the
technology. DuPont continues to fund its HTS research program at
significant levels.
Less-Costly, More-Efficient
Electronic Equipment
HTS processes developed in the ATP
project could make superconductivity-based equipment less costly
and more efficient to operate. HTS-based signal coils, for example,
permit the use of a low-cost permanent magnet for MRI, an arrangement
that could reduce the installation cost of this MRI machine to as
little as one-tenth that of a standard MRI device. In addition,
the use of HTS electronics enables equivalent or better MRI performance
at much lower cost. IGC, an MRI manufacturer that uses DuPont HTS
electronics in its products, reports that operating costs for its
MRI machines are expected to be about one-sixth those for currently
available competitor machines that use low-temperature superconducting
technology. Thus, the new technology helps reduce MRI capital and
operating costs while improving diagnostic effectiveness.
The benefits of the new HTS technology
are likely to be substantial and widespread. In MRI and satellite
communications, for example, the chain of events leading from the
manufacturer of the components to the end users has many steps.
At each step, some benefits from the technology are likely to accrue
to intermediate customers and end-users, who pay for only a small
part of the value they receive from the technological advance. Given
the large number of end users for MRI and satellite services, the
aggregate value of those spillover benefits is likely to be in the
tens of millions of dollars.
During this project, DuPont worked
with a small equipment supplier, the Kurt J. Lesker Company, to
develop improved fabrication equipment for depositing HTS material
on a wafer. Lesker is now making these improved machines available
to other companies, as well as to DuPont.
PROJECT:
To develop thin-film fabrication processes needed to produce
high-temperature superconducting (HTS) electronics components
at reasonable cost.
Duration: 4/1/1991 - 3/31/1994
ATP number: 90-01-0064
FUNDING (in thousands)::
| ATP |
$1,590 |
67% |
| Company |
784
|
33% |
| Total |
$2,374 |
|
ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
DuPont accomplished the R&D goal and has demonstrated several
component products that directly use the new technology. It
has also marketed products based in part on procedures developed
by the project, but using thallium/ barium as a key ingredient
instead of thallium/ lead. Indicators of successful development
of the technology are that the company:
- published more than 20 research
papers on the technology in professional journals;
- had its HTS component technology
recognized as one of the "Top Products of 1993" by Microwaves
& RF magazine in December 1993;
- introduced HTS thin-film products
that, when built into larger systems such as magnetic resonance
imaging machines and communications satellites, can lead
to higher performance at lower overall cost; and
- worked with a small equipment-supplier
company to develop improved HTS thin-film fabrication equipment.
COMMERCIALIZATION STATUS:
The market for new products based on the fabrication technology
developed in the project is well established, even though
applications that use thallium/lead as the HTS material have
been slow to develop. Several products made with the new HTS
technology are being marketed. The company has invested large
sums to scale up for production in anticipation of increased
demand in the near future.
OUTLOOK:
Use of the new process technology can substantially reduce the
cost and improve the quality of superconductors in many applications.
Applications based on this technology could, for example, make
magnetic resonance imaging and terrestrial and satellite communications
less expensive and more efficient to operate, generating widespread
benefits valued at tens of millions of dollars.
COMPANY:
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company:
P.O. Box 80304:
Wilmington, DE 19880-0304
Contact: Dennis J. Kountz
:
Phone: (302) 695-4256 |
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Date created: March
1999
Last updated:
April 12, 2005
|
