Establishment of an easy Ic measurement method of HTS superconducting tapes using clipped voltage taps

The critical current, $I_c$ of HTS superconducting tapes can be measured by transport or contactless method. Practically, the transport method using the four-probe method is the most common. In this study, a simple test procedure by clipping the voltage lead taps have been introduced instead of soldering which reduces time and effort and thereby achieving a much faster measurement of $I_c$. When using a pair of iron clips, $I_c$ value decreased as compared with the measured one by standard method using soldered voltage taps and varies with the width of the clipped specimen part. However, when using a pure Cu clip, both by clipping and by soldering voltage taps give a comparable result and $I_c$ measured are equal and close to the samples specification. As a result, material to be used as voltage clip should be considered and should not influence the potential voltage between the leads during $I_c$ measurement. Furthermore, the simulation result of magnetic flux during $I_c$ measurement test showed that the decrease of $I_c$ observed in the experiment is due to the magnetic flux density, $B_y$ produced at the clipped part of the sample by the operating current with iron clips attached to the sample.