The rapid rise of compact fusion has ignited demand for high temperature superconducting tapes, creating a major opening for the HTS industry. Manufacturers are scaling pulsed laser deposition REBCO coated conductors to deliver performance and price points suited to fusion magnets and other high field systems.
PLD has matured from lab tools to industrial production through multi plume mult by Riko Seibo
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Oct 10, 2025
The rapid rise of compact fusion has ignited demand for high temperature superconducting tapes, creating a major opening for the HTS industry. Manufacturers are scaling pulsed laser deposition REBCO coated conductors to deliver performance and price points suited to fusion magnets and other high field systems.
PLD has matured from lab tools to industrial production through multi plume multi turn processes and high power excimer lasers. Top tier PLD producers now exceed 3,000 km at 12 mm annually and collectively account for more than half of global HTS wire output.
Roughly 15 HTS tape makers operate worldwide, with four leaders on the PLD path FFJ Shanghai Superconductor Technology Fujikura and S innovation. Others including HTSI SuperMag Technology Suprema SuNAM and SuperPower are adopting PLD lines as scaling and replication lower barriers to entry.
Both flat plate and drum chamber designs can yield uniform long length tapes. Mass produced PLD REBCO has achieved Je above 1,000 A per mm2 at 20 K and 20 T with Ic greater than 200 A per 4 mm at 20 K 20 T B parallel c and street prices around 15 to 30 dollars per meter.
Key goals are sharper cost downs toward 50 dollars per kA m short term and 10 to 20 dollars per kA m longer term while improving reproducibility and process windows. Laser efficiency A per Joule REBCO target utilization under 50 percent and raw material lead times remain central constraints.
Scaling by line replication is feasible as demonstrated by FFJ and Shanghai Superconductor. Opportunities include richer online monitoring closed loop control and AI driven data mining to widen stable deposition windows enhance uniformity and raise yields for next generation compact fusion programs.
Research Report:Commercial compact fusion triggered REBCO tape industry: Pulsed laser deposition technology opportunities and challenges
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