Since the discovery of high temperature superconductors the scientific com nmnity has been very active in research on material and system development as well as on the basic understanding of the mechanism of superconductiv ity at high transition temperatures. Industrial groups joined in very soon as with these new materials the prospects for commercial application of super conductivity seemed to be more promising than ever. Materials processing was divided into film deposition and bulk preparation techniques, the latter including conductor fabrication and melt growth of monolithic samples as...