AMERICAN SUPERCONDUCTOR CORPORATION — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: Today"s Navy continues to see increased demand for more power both on and off the shi

Description

Today"s Navy continues to see increased demand for more power both on and off the ship. This need is largely driven by the continued development of high power density advanced weapons systems and sensors. Continued space and weight limitations for these ship applications will drive the need for new power solutions to be light and compact, easing installation on new ships and enabling upgrades on existing ones. To meet this need, highly efficient methods of transferring large amounts of power are being investigated by NSWC Carderock in Philadelphia through the use of High temperature Superconductors (HTS). Although the team in Philadelphia is developing these high capacity, compact power cables, there is no active development for the connectors that these extremely power dense cables will need if they are to integrated at the ship level. American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC) has gained experience in the development, design and manufacture of low voltage DC HTS cable connectors through its partnership with NSWC on the HTS advanced degaussing program. Although high capacity AC power cable connectors will be dramatically different than their low voltage DC counterparts, AMSC is nonetheless uniquely positioned to successfully develop this type of low temperature, thermally isolated, electrical connection.