Europe’s Emerging Contender in HTS Manufacturing

Suprema, a startup spun out of Italy’s national energy research agency ENEA, is developing a new approach to high-temperature superconducting (HTS) tape manufacturing. Its founding team brings over 20 years of experience across every stage of second-gen HTS tape production. This depth of expertise enables Suprema to iterate quickly, maintain control over its proprietary IP, and optimize the end-to-end manufacturing process.

That integrated approach recently delivered a key milestone. In collaboration with Germany’s Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Suprema’s prototype tape achieved a critical current density of over 2 million amperes per square centimeter (2 MA/cm²) at 20 kelvin and 20 tesla—conditions directly relevant to fusion magnets. The result matches the best published performance from established producers and validates Suprema’s technical approach.

High-Performance Architecture, Built to Scale

Suprema’s tape uses a coated conductor architecture, with a REBCO (rare-earth barium copper oxide) superconducting layer deposited on a flexible metal substrate. What sets Suprema apart is how it nano-engineers this layer to perform under extreme conditions. By introducing tailored nanoscale defects (artificial pinning centers), the tape can carry higher currents in strong magnetic fields without losing superconductivity.

This is enabled by a proprietary Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) process, a thin-film technique that allows precise control over the superconducting layer’s composition and thickness. PLD produces uniform, high-quality films that enhance both current-carrying capacity and reliability. Unlike the batch-style methods still common in the industry, Suprema’s process is designed for continuous production, with the goal of manufacturing HTS tape at an industrial scale.

This built-in scalability is central to Suprema’s thesis. By improving material utilization, automating deposition, and optimizing throughput, Suprema is not just targeting peak performance—it’s also working to reduce costs. Lowering the cost per meter of HTS tape will be essential for commercial adoption, and Suprema is addressing that challenge from day one.

Building Europe’s Largest HTS Tape Facility

Backed by European sustainability funds and private capital, Suprema is developing what would become Europe’s largest HTS tape manufacturing plant, with its first full-scale production line slated for completion in 2027.

The timeline is ambitious, considering the major hurdles ahead. Following the KIT milestone, the next phase includes scaling the PLD process from short, high-performance samples to production-relevant lengths. Then come the challenges associated with scaled manufacturing: designing custom equipment, securing raw material supply chains, and establishing rigorous quality control for a novel HTS product. But Suprema can’t afford to miss the moment. Fusion ventures like Commonwealth Fusion Systems and Tokamak Energy are targeting demonstration plants by 2027–2028, all of which will require substantial volumes of HTS tape.

Challenges remain, but if Suprema continues hitting its milestones—as the KIT results suggest—and stays on track for its factory launch, it could become a vital part of the supply chain for the emerging fusion energy industry in Europe and beyond.