Energy applications employing high-temperature superconductors (HTS), such as motors/generators, transformers, transmission lines and fault current limiters, are usually operated in the alternate current (AC) regime. In order to be efficient, the HTS devices need to have a sufficiently low value of AC loss, in addition to the necessary current-carrying capacity. Most applications are operated with currents beyond the current capacity of single conductors and consequently require cabled conductor solutions with much higher current carrying capacity, from a few kA to up to 20-30 kA for large hydro-generators.A century ago, in 1914, Ludwig Roebel invented a low-loss cable design for copper cables, which was successively named after him. The main idea behind Roebel cables is to separate the current in different strands and to provide a full transposition of the strands along the cable direction. Nowadays, these cables are commonly used in the stator of large generators. Based on the same design concept of their conventional material counterparts, HTS Roebel cables from REBCO coated conductors were first manufactured at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and have been successively developed in a number of varieties that provide all the required technical features such as fully transposed strands, high transport currents and low AC losses, yet retaining enough flexibility for a specific cable design. In the past few years a large number of scientific papers have been published on the concept, manufacturing and characterization of such cables. Times are therefore mature for a review of those results. The goal is to provide an overview and a succinct and easy-to-consult guide for users, developers, and manufacturers of this kind of HTS cables.

We prepared and characterized monofilamentary MgB 2 wires with a mechanically reinforced composite sheath of Ta(Nb)/Cu/steel, which leads to dense filaments and correspondingly high transport currents up to J c = 10 5 Acm -2 at 4.2 K, self field. The reproducibility of the measured transport currents was excellent and not depending on the wire diameter. Using different precursors, commercial reacted powder or an unreacted Mg/B powder mixture, a strong influence on the pinning behaviour and the irreversibility field was observed. The critical transport current density showed a nearly linear temperature dependency for all wires being still 52 kAcm -2 at 20 K and 23 kAcm -2 at 30 K. Detailed data for J c (B,T) and T c (B) were measured.

Low AC loss high transport current HTS cables (>1 kA) are required for application in transformers, generators and are considered for future generations of fusion reactors coils. 2G coated conductors are suitable candidates for high field application at quite high operation temperatures of 50-77 K, which is crucial precondition for economical cooling costs. As a feasibility study we present the first ROEBEL bar cable of approx. 35 cm length made from industrial DyBCO coated conductor (THEVA GmbH, Germany). Meander shaped ROEBEL strands of 4 mm width with a twist pitch of 180 mm were cut from 10 mm wide CC tapes using a specially designed tool. The strands carried in average 157 Amps/cm-width DC and were assembled to a subcable with 5 strands and a final cable with 16 strands. The 5 strand cable was tested and carried a transport current of > 300 Amps DC at 77 K, equivalent to the sum of the individual strand transport critical currents. The 16 strand cable carried 500 A limited through heating effects and non sufficient stabilisation and current sharing. A pulse current load indicated a current carrying potential of > 1 kA for the 16 strand cable. EUCAS2005, 11th.-15th.Sept.2005, Vienna Austria, to be published in SUST, special issue

RBCO ( = Y or Rare Earth element) coated conductors (CC) are the most promising HTS materials for future high field coils operated at moderately high temperature (40-50 K). Coils are planned for the second generation of fusion reactors (DEMO, "DEMOnstrator") and beyond. A ROEBEL bar concept for a high current (kA-class) low AC loss cable is the most suitable assembling technique for conductors in magnet windings due to the flat rectangular cross section. The presented RACC-cable technique (RACC=ROEBEL Assembled Coated Conductors) works with pre-shaping of tapes into strands with the ROEBEL specific meander geometry. The usually very good bending properties of the CC support the assembling procedure of the RACC-cable. We report on a 16 strand RACC-cable with 19 cm transposition length made from CC material from the commercial supplier SuperPower which reached 1020 A transport critical current at 77 K ( eng = 11 3 kAcm 2 ). The basic properties of the virgin YBCO tapes and the shaped strands like orientation and field dependent transport currents, current homogeneity and bending effects, were investigated and correlated with the measured properties of the RACC-cable. Calculation of the self field effects by means of a model adapted to the specific RACC-cable geometry and in particular taking into account the current distribution in the cable, explained the 30% current reduction in the cable quantitatively.Index Terms-HTS coated conductors, ROEBEL bar, self field effects.

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