Double-sided High Temperature Superconducting Films for Microwave Components

This Small Business Innovative Research Phase I project has the primary objective of coating two sides of a substrate with High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) thin films and patterning them into microwave devices. Double sided HTS films offer reduced volume, less weight and higher performance than conventional components. The challenge in coating both sides of a substrate is protecting the opposite side during a deposition. Also, large areas (>1") will need to be coated for many microwave devices. We propose to use Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD), which we have previously used to coat a variety of substrates with high quality YBCO. By adding a non-contact, non-contaminating radiative blackbody heater we will be able to uniformly coat up to 2" diameter substrates on both sides. We will evaluate these materials for their microwave transport properties, pattern them into user specified devices, re-evaluate them, and deliver them to the Army for flirther testing. If we are awarded a phase II, we would employ an innovative target manipulation scheme and heater design to scale up the process to coat 6 inch wafers on both sides sirnultaneously with a high throughput. Many emerging commercial and military microwave subsystems will significantly benefit from the successes achieved in this program. Also, the non-contact heater assembly, novel substrate and target handling approaches to coat both sides of large area substrates with a high throughput are expected to generate attractive PLD markets for Neocera, both as an equipment manufacturer and as a supplier of HTS thin films.