Abstract
We fabricated resistive superconducting fault current lmiters based on YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7}$ thin films and investigated their quench propagation characteristics. The YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7}$ film was coated with a gold layer and patterned into 1 mm wide meander lines by photolithography. The limiters were tested with simulated fault currents of various fault angles and amplitudes. The quench propagation characteristics were explained based on the heat transfer within the film as well as between the film and the surrounding liquid nitrogen. The quench completion time strongly depended on the potential fault current. It was 1 msec at the peak fault current of 76 A/peak/ and corresponding quench propagation speed was 43 m/sec (film cross section: 4 x 10$^{-6}$ $\textrm{cm}^2$).
