Superconductor patent granted

HTS patent winners (from left) Murray Presland, Bob Buckley and Jeff Tallon.

A patent has finally been awarded by the US Patent Office for Industrial Research’s key high-temperature superconducting ceramic discovery. This material is the only substance being used commercially in the world today for the production of high-temperature superconductor (HTS) wire.

The patent is owned by Superlink Developments – a joint venture set up by Industrial Research and Meridian Energy (formerly part of ECNZ) to commercialise Industrial Research’s superconducting technology.

Superconductors are materials that lose virtually all resistance to electricity when cooled to their critical temperature. This gives the advantage of carrying much larger currents, without loss, through thinner wire. The international market for superconducting technology is projected to be over US$20 billion annually by 2020.

US-based American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC), the world’s leading manufacturer of HTS wire, is the exclusive licensee of this technology and the companies have worked together to secure the patent.

Real opportunities for New Zealand firms to build high value businesses around this technology are now being actively pursued. A Trade and Enterprise report estimates a potential market of $300 million per year for New Zealand companies.

Industrial Research itself is developing a new business expected to earn up to $25 million per year around the design and development of components for industrial magnets, generators and electric motors based on HTS technology.

The granting of the US patent is the culmination of years of legal battles and near endless appeals pitted against some of the world’s largest companies.

Industrial Research’s Jeff Tallon, one of the principle scientists who led the world in the discovery of the material in 1988, said the awarding of the patent in the US was a significant win a long time in the making.

“It’s terrific really,” Dr Tallon said. “It’s extremely satisfying that we’ve been through a long drawn out battle and that we’ve emerged victorious.”

“We own the fundamental patent for the only material at the moment which is used for commercial high-temperature superconductor applications.”

This would mean substantial royalty earnings as the commercialisation of high-temperature superconductors took off, he said.

“In fact it’s been rather beneficial to us that it’s been such a long time in coming because it allows us to take advantage of the ramp-up which is only just now occurring in the superconductivity business."

The material itself is a metal oxide consisting of bismuth, lead, strontium, calcium, copper and oxygen –known as BSCCO-2223.

Co-inventors on the patent are Industrial Research’s Bob Buckley and Murray Presland.

The “high-temperature” tag can be misleading. Although it superconducts at a much higher temperature than earlier superconducting materials, this is still a very cold minus 163 degrees Celsius.

Superconductors themselves were first discovered in 1911, but were restricted to materials at temperatures close to absolute zero or minus 273 degrees Celsius. This was an extremely impractical operating temperature, requiring expensive liquid helium as a coolant.

A goal that occupied scientists for the best part of the 20th century was to find a superconducting material that operated at the higher, much more practical temperature of inexpensive liquid nitrogen (minus 196 degrees Celsius).

Swiss and German scientists developed a promising family of ceramic superconducting compounds in 1986, with a number of discoveries being made by science teams all around the world leading to the liquid nitrogen barrier first being broken in 1987.

The race was on to find the best performing material and the New Zealand team was in the thick of it.

In March 1988 after some clever sleuth work, the New Zealand scientists correctly identified the structure and composition of an exceptionally high performing ceramic compound. At first they assumed that other research teams throughout the world would also have come up with the same answers.

Almost as an afterthought, Jeff Tallon realised they should put a few details of their discovery down on paper. Within a few minutes he covered the back of a greasy brown paper lunch bag with a description of the new material. In jest, this was then signed and dated.

After a month it became apparent that no one else around the world had managed to crack the problem. Dr Tallon retrieved the brown paper bag and filed a patent for the material, and with Dr Buckley and other colleagues published details of their research in the science journal Nature in May 1988.

Almost overnight the New Zealand team became recognised as an international force in the field of superconductivity.

Such was the potential commercial value of the discovery that interminable international patent court wrangles have been waged ever since, disputing the New Zealanders’ claims to be first.

Following the awarding of a patent in Europe several years ago, the US Patent court decision is hugely valuable, Dr Tallon said. The United States is one of the main markets for the development and application of HTS products.