Superconductor Technologies Inc. Achieves Conductus Wire

- Attains critical current performance of 500 Amps with successful completion of target production run capacity of pilot machine -

- Ships Conductus wire to five new customers in first quarter -

AUSTIN, Texas, April 29, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Superconductor Technologies Inc. (STI) (Nasdaq: SCON ), a world leader in the development and production of high temperature superconducting (HTS) materials and associated technologies, successfully completed a full pilot production run of Conductus ^® wire achieving a minimum current of 500 Amps per centimeter (A/cm) width at 77k. The 100 meter equivalent of 4 millimeter wire was achieved by processing 50 meters of 10 millimeter wide wire.

"We remain focused on our customers' commercial success with Conductus wire performance and high yield manufacturing being a critical part of our strategic plan," stated Adam Shelton, STI's VP of marketing and product line management. "Achieving our pilot production target of 500A/cm, in a run that yielded 100% of the design capacity of the systems, is a significant milestone that further demonstrates the effectiveness of STI's proprietary RCE-CDR process. High performance 500A/cm wire is optimum for many of our customers as they look to increase the value proposition of their applications by either reducing size and weight, or substantially increasing other functionality. High yield manufacturing ultimately provides the critical path to reduce cost and increase capacity. Conductus wire is uniquely positioned to address many of the market needs as the industry continues to ramp the deployment of superconducting solutions for problems unsolvable by conventional means."

"The key remaining deliverable we need to address for our customers is capacity. Customer projects utilize large volumes of wire per device, ranging from 100s of meters for a small magnet to 100,000s of meters for a medium size transmission power cable project. Our strategic plan is an initial capacity of 750km per year. The production scale RCE-CDR equipment was designed and the assemblies were ordered in late 2013. Our plan is to complete the installation of our production machine capable of 1km lengths and 750km per annum at the end of the second quarter. Initial production is scheduled to start in the third quarter, ramping to full capacity throughout the remainder of 2014. We're very proud of our team's accomplishments and look forward to meeting the demands of our customers as they lock in projects for late 2014 and beyond," Shelton concluded.

During the first quarter of 2014 STI shipped wire to nine customers; six shipments were to Stage 1 customers for performance evaluation and three shipments were to Stage 2 customers for more rigorous testing in prototype devices. Of the nine total shipments, five were new customers. Also, in the first quarter, the company received purchase orders from three new customers; planned fulfillment of the orders will utilize the existing pilot production system. The backlog from purchase orders along with other wire shipments that STI has committed to as of April 29, 2014 are expected to exhaust capacity until the new RCE-CDR production system is delivering Conductus wire in the third quarter of 2014.

About Superconductor Technologies Inc. (STI)

Superconductor Technologies Inc., headquartered in Austin, TX, has been a world leader in HTS materials since 1987, developing more than 100 patents as well as proprietary trade secrets and manufacturing expertise. For more than a decade, STI has been providing innovative interference elimination and network enhancement solutions to the commercial wireless industry. The company is currently leveraging its key enabling technologies, including RF filtering, HTS materials and cryogenics to develop energy efficient, cost-effective and high performance second generation (2G) HTS wire for existing and emerging power applications, to develop applications for advanced RF wireless solutions and innovative adaptive filtering, and for government R&D. Superconductor Technologies Inc.'s common stock is listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the ticker symbol "SCON." For more information about STI, please visit http://www.suptech.com .

Safe Harbor Statement

Statements in this press release regarding our business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are inherently subject to uncertainties and other factors, which could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. These factors and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: our limited cash and a history of losses; the limited number of potential customers; the limited number of suppliers for some of our components and our HTS wire; there being no significant backlog from quarter to quarter; our market being characterized by rapidly advancing technology; overcoming technical challenges in attaining milestones to develop and manufacture commercial lengths of our HTS wire; customer acceptance of our HTS wire; fluctuations in product demand from quarter to quarter; the impact of competitive filter products, technologies and pricing; manufacturing capacity constraints and difficulties; our ability to raise sufficient capital to fund our operations, and the impact on our strategic wire initiative of any inability to raise such funds; the impact of any such financing activity on the level of our stock price, and local, regional, and national and international economic conditions and events and the impact they may have on us and our customers, such as the current worldwide recession.

Forward-looking statements can be affected by many other factors, including, those described in the "Business" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of STI's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013 and in STI's other public filings. These documents are available online at STI's website, www.suptech.com , or through the SEC's website, www.sec.gov . Forward-looking statements are based on information presently available to senior management, and STI has not assumed any duty to update any forward-looking statements.