Litz
wire
The
resistance of a conductor depends on its cross-sectional
area ; a conductor with a larger area has a lower resistance
for a given length. However at high frequencies, alternating
current (AC) does not penetrate deeply into conductors
due to eddy currents induced in the material; it tends
to flow near the surface. This is called skin effect.
Therefore in a solid conductor like a wire, current
tends to flow in a layer at the surface, and less current
flows through the material near the center of the wire.
Since less of the cross-sectional area of the wire is
being used, the resistance of the wire is greater than
it is for direct current (DC). The higher the frequency
of the current, the smaller the depth to which the current
penetrates, and the current is "crowded" into
an increasingly smaller cross-sectional area along the
surface, so the AC resistance of wire increases with
frequency.
Each
thin conductor is less than a skin-depth, so an individual
strand does not suffer an appreciable skin effect loss.
The strands must be insulated from each other—otherwise
all the wires in the bundle would short together, behave
like a single large wire, and still have skin effect
problems.
Neotech
UP-OCC
Neotech has been producing outstanding
cables since 1980, and has long been a leader in producing
wire and cable using "single crystal" UP-OCC,
developed by Professor Ohno of the Chiba Institute of
Technology in Japan. UP-OCC is at least 99.99998% pure,
and has an average crystal size of 125 meters (410 feet)!
Compare this to the average crystal size of Oxygen Free,
which is .02 meters (3/4").
UP-OCC copper and silver are considered the ultimate
in copper and silver conductior technology today.
.
![](../pictures/neotech/Neotech-up-occ-comparison-500x213.jpg)
The unidirectional UP-OCC has no electric resistance
and practically no crystal boundaries. Accordingly,
it is able to transmit electrical signals faster and
with less distortion than ordinary OFC and silver wires.
All of these features make the pure OCC copper and silver
the state-of-the art conductor materials for the audiophile
cable industry
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