Ultraconductors

Superconductivity is a phenomenon where a material exhibits zero electrical resistance. A bulk superconductor reflects a magnetic field, preventing any build up of an internal magnetic field (known as the Meissner effect). Under superconductivity, electric currents flow forever without losing any energy.

Today’s commercialized superconductors (used in MRI scanners) include ceramics or metals that require cryogenic refrigeration (with liquid nitrogen and/or liquid helium) in order to operate, severely restricting their market adoption because of high capital and operating costs.

ULTRACONDUCTOR™ defined: An electrical conductor, similar to present-day superconductors, having zero measurable electrical resistance in one dimension. They consist of organic polymers that exhibit electrical resistance much lower than the best metallic conductors and are considered a novel state of matter.

Ultraconductors™ are patented materials being developed for commercial applications with the support of Chava Energy and are the subject of a landmark U.S. Patent 5,777,292, U.S. Patent 6,804,105  and equivalent patents pending worldwide.

Ultraconductors™ are the result of more than 16 years of prior scientific research, peer-reviewed publication, independent laboratory testing, and 8 years of engineering development. From an engineering perspective, Ultraconductors™ are a fundamentally new and enabling technology, a ‘re lightweight, flexible, transparent medium possessing magnetic, electric, and electronic properties with exceptionally high commercial value. This technology was independently reproduced for the United States Air Force. Chava Energy continues to develop and improve upon wire and cable using room temperature polymer superconductive materials.

Ultraconductor™ polymers are the only known materials of their kind and our proprietary technology includes the materials, means of fabrication, and application types. Ultimately, Ultraconductors™ offer unprecedented high performance and energy efficiency across a very broad range of products. They are made by the sequential processing of amorphous polar dielectric elastomers.

Ultraconductors™ exhibit a set of anomalous magnetic and electric properties, including: very high electrical conductivity (> 1011 S/cm -1) and current densities (> 5 x 108 A/cm2), over a wide temperature range (1.8 to 700 K). Additional properties established by experimental measurements include:

  • the absence of measurable heat generation under high current;
  • thermal versus electrical conductivity orders of magnitude higher than usual, in violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law;
  • a jump-like transition to a resistive state at a critical current;
  • a nearly zero Seebeck coefficient over the temperature range 87 – 233 K; and
  • no measurable resistance when Ultraconductor™ films are placed between superconducting tin electrodes at cryogenic temperatures.

The Ultraconductor™ properties are measured in discrete macromolecular structures which form over time after the processing. In present thin films (1 – 100 micron thickness) these structures, called ‘channels’, are typically 1 – 2 microns in diameter and 10 – 1000 microns apart.

Using Ultraconductors™ for chip connectors solve a major technical issue for the semiconductor industry – one that still relies upon solder bumps to connect chips, further limiting chip size reduction. Our approach will promote the ability to create smaller chip designs that generate less heat.

We are currently aware of only one other polymer superconductor. It was developed by Bell Laboratories and requires cooling to 2.4 Kelvin (-456 F), very close to Absolute Zero.

Ultraconductor Wire™ can be made by extending a channel to indefinite length. The technique has been demonstrated in principle. Connections between conducting structures is done with a metal electrode: when two channels are brought together they connect.

From an engineering point of view, in many applications Ultraconductors can replace copper wire and current high temperature superconductors (which still require liquid nitrogen for cooling) . More important, the wires used will be considerably lighter than copper-based wires and exhibit zero resistance.

Our primary technology objectives

  • To develop commercial process and fabrication technologies.
  • To reach application-ready platforms for commercial film, wafer, and wire products.
  • To achieve proof-of-concept for additional product applications.
  • Electric power products – power downloads, motors, generators, transmission and distribution lines.
  • Electronics – microelectronic circuits and components, computer chip mounting, antennas.
  • Medical – MRI systems, sensors, specialized instruments.
  • Electromagnetics – energy storage, shielding.