IEEE Council on Superconductivity Standards Committee Activities

The IEEE Council on Superconductivity Standards Committee is responsible for developing standards relevant to superconductivity. This covers all three major segments: materials, large scale (magnets, power transmission, etc.) and electronics (metrology, electromagnetic sensors, digital circuits, etc.).

We have found it most expedient (and cost effective) to work with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) TC90 Committee in developing standards related to superconductivity. Recent IEC standards that our committee has been working on include:

• 90/457/CDV - IEC 61788-23 ED2: Superconductivity: Residual resistance ratio measurement - Residual resistance ratio of cavity-grade niobium superconductors
• 90/462/FDIS - IEC 61788-17 ED2: Superconductivity: Electronic characteristic measurements - Local critical current density and its distribution in large-area superconducting films
• 90/460/CDV IEC 61788-22-2 ED1: Measurement of I_c—critical current and R_n—normal resistance of Josephson Junctions utilizing HTS—high temperature superconducting materials

Prior to COVID, the CSC’s joint IEC-IEEE Committee on Superconducting RF Electronics Standards has met in person at least annually and sometimes as much as three times in a single year to discuss standards. In the past year, we have had to meet via Zoom. This committee is currently working on additional projects that will result in standards for:

• Dark count measurement methods for SSPD—superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors
• Transport property measurements for SQUIDs—Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices

We anticipate our next meeting will be a Zoom meeting in conjunction with the 2021 EuCAS meeting this coming September. If you would like information about the Standards Committee or to participate in the development standards relevant to superconductivity, the chair (Robert L. Fagaly) can be reached at [email protected].