Patent ID: 8173901

Claim:
A multifilament superconductor comprising: a core area including several superconductor filaments and reinforcement filaments, each of the superconductor filaments and the reinforcement filaments having a hexagonal cross section, wherein: the superconductor filaments and the reinforcement filaments are arranged such that they form a regular hexagonal matrix in the cross-section of the core area; the reinforcement filaments are disposed in a radially symmetric pattern along the length of the core area and in the cross-section of the core area; wherein each of two adjacent of the reinforcement filaments directly abut each other; the core area being enclosed by an outer shell made of an non-superconducting metal or a non-superconducting alloy; the reinforcement filaments consist of tantalum or a tantalum alloy; and the several superconductor filaments each have a core made of a powder metallurgical superconductor, which is enclosed by an inner shell made of a non-superconducting metal or a non-superconducting alloy.