The brief

Analyst view

• Formed in 2000 from Intermagnetics General's superconductor group; Furukawa Electric bought it from Philips in 2012.
• Supplying several hundred km of tape for Tokamak Energy's ST80-HTS fusion prototype since 2023.
• In June 2026 Furukawa and Tokamak Energy began studying HTS tape manufacturing in the UK.

Technical approach

As reported

Deposition

MOCVD-grown REBCO on IBAD template

Buffer layers are sputtered on Hastelloy, one textured by ion-beam-assisted deposition; the superconductor is grown by chemical vapour deposition.

In-field current

Zirconium nanorods

A zirconium additive forms nanorods in the film that pin magnetic vortices, keeping current high inside strong magnetic fields.