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The use of high temperature superconducting (HTS) tapes in a flexible cryostat has been shown to provide great opportunities for the US Navy. The HTS tapes need to be fixed at the ends to provide an electrical connection. Since the ends are rigid but the tapes are contained in a changing environment there is a possibility that the tapes may become twisted and therefore damaged. Twisting is defined in this paper as the rotation of the tape along the length of the tape while the end has no attack-angle. The twisting length and angle of first generation (1G) BSCCO tapes is studied by measuring the voltage drop across the tapes in a liquid nitrogen bath when current is applied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Research Council (NRC) of Canada has recently established an alternating-current Josephson voltage standard (ACJVS) system based on the National Institute of Standards and Technology pulse-driven Josephson junction arrays. This paper describes the efforts undertaken at the NRC and the experience that was gained. An experimental method of measuring corrections for the voltage probe lead errors is described, and first results are reported. By introducing the ACJVS, the NRC will be able to reduce the uncertainties of the thermal transfer standard calibration by threefold on the 200-mV range and five- to tenfold on the 20-mV range, in comparison with thermal-converter- and micropotentiometer-based calibrations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a 10 V Josephson Voltage Standard (JVS) direct comparison between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Normalização e Qualidade Industrial (INMETRO) using automatic data acquisition. The results were in agreement to within 1.1 nV and the mean difference between the two JVSs at 10 V is 0.54 nV with a pooled combined standard uncertainty of 1.48 nV. Considering a recent JVS comparison between NIST and the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), the difference between INMETRO and the BIPM thus was found to be -0.26 nV with a standard uncertainty of 1.76 nV. INMETRO JVS improvements since the 2006 INMETRO-BIPM comparison are also described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Potential NASA optical missions such as the Space Interferometer Mission require actuators for precision positioning to accuracies of the order of nanometers. Commercially available multilayer piezoelectric stack actuators are being considered for driving these precision mirror positioning mechanisms. These mechanisms have potential mission operational requirements that exceed 5 years for one mission life. To test the feasibility of using these commercial actuators for these applications and to determine their reliability and the redundancy requirements, a life test study was undertaken. The nominal actuator requirements for the most critical actuators on the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM) in terms of number of cycles was estimated from the Modulation Optics Mechanism (MOM) and Pathlength control Optics Mechanism (POM) and these requirements were used to define the study. At a nominal drive frequency of 250 Hz, one mission life is calculated to be 40 billion cycles. In this study, a set of commercial PZT stacks configured in a potential flight actuator configuration (pre-stressed to 18 MPa and bonded in flexures) were tested for up to 100 billion cycles. Each test flexure allowed for two sets of primary and redundant stacks to be mechanically connected in series. The tests were controlled using an automated software control and data acquisition system that set up the test parameters and monitored the waveform of the stack electrical current and voltage. The samples were driven between 0 and 20 V at 2000 Hz to accelerate the life test and mimic the voltage amplitude that is expected to be applied to the stacks during operation. During the life test, 10 primary stacks were driven and 10 redundant stacks, mechanically in series with the driven stacks, were open-circuited. The stroke determined from a strain gauge, the temperature and humidity in the chamber, and the temperature of each individual stack were recorded. Other properties of the stacks, including the displacement from a capacitance gap sensor and impedance spectra were measured at specific intervals. The average degradation in the stroke over the life test was found to be small (≪3%) for the primary stacks and ≪4% for the redundant stacks. It was noted that about half of the stroke reduction occurred within the first 10 billion cycles. At the end of the life test, it was found that the actuator could recover about half of the lost stroke by applying a dc voltage of 100 V at room temperature. The data up to 100 billion cycles for these tests and the analysis of the experimental results are presented in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]