Recent progress in high performance Ag-sheathed Bi2223 wire (DI-BSCCO®)

Sumitomo Electric has been developing the silver-sheathed Bi2223 multi-filamentary wires since the discovery of Bi-based superconductors. DI-BSCCO is the high performance wires produced using the controlled- overpressure (CT-OP) sintering technique. The present commercial DI-BSCCO can provide the uniform high critical current, Ic, up to 180 A with length over 2000 m, and recently 200 A were succeeded to be obtained by the same kind of 1000 m length wires, resulting from the improvement and control of the microstructure in Bi2223 multi-filaments. The short trial wires of several meters have exhibited the highest Ic over 240 A at 77K in self-field (corresponding to 580 A per 1 cm-width). Besides, the optimization of carrier density after CT-OP led to further enhancement of Ic, reached 250 A. All the derivative products also have uniform critical current properties over entire length even after lamination with the reinforcing metals. The performances of DI-BSCCO can meet the growing needs for various application of high temperature superconductor like high in-field applications, such as magnets and motors. The recent progress in transport properties of commercial DI-BSCCO and R&D short trial wires is shown.