Superconducting circuit makers pin hopes on wireless filters
The discovery of ceramic superconductors in 1986 sparked dreams of levitating trains, cheap electric power, and desktop medical scanners. Some savvy investors instead set their sights on superconducting microelectronics. In 1987, a group that included Intel cofounder Robert Noyce and Nobel Laureate J. Robert Schrieffer started Superconductor Technologies Inc. (STI). In the same year another group, led by Ethernet pioneer John F. Shoch, started Conductus Inc. Now, 15 years later, the pioneers in superconducting circuits have merged in the hopes of better surviving a market meltdown. By the time the two companies merged with one another, their visions of becoming a foundry for superconducting circuits in general had narrowed to production of superconducting filters to improve cell phone communications
