ISD process development for coated conductors

The fabrication of coated conductors involves a multitude of processing steps. We present an economic route to produce second generation HTS tape from the initial substrate preparation to the final metal coating. The most important and technically challenging steps are the deposition of an oriented buffer layer and the superconductor film in a reel-to-reel configuration. New evaporation techniques have been developed to enable reliable, high rate tape coating. Highly oriented MgO-buffer layers are realized by inclined substrate deposition (ISD) yielding an in-plane orientation < 10° FWHM and critical current densities up to 2.5 MA/cm2. Buffered tape is fabricated up to 40 m length. The subsequent HTS deposition has been performed on several meter long pieces and reaches current levels in excess of 400 A/cm.