EXHIBIT 5.1


January 15, 2003

Board of Directors
Superconductor Technologies Inc.
460 Ward Drive
Santa Barbara, California  93111-2310

         Re:      Superconductor Technologies Inc., a Delaware corporation (the
                  "Company")

Ladies and Gentlemen:

         We have acted as the Company's counsel in connection with the
preparation and filing of that certain Registration Statement on Form S-3, as
amended by Amendment No. 1 (File No. 333-102186) (the "Registration Statement")
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the
registration of 36,165,520 shares (the "Shares") of the Company's common stock,
par value $.001 per share (the "Common Stock"). The Shares consist of the
following:

         (a)      28,358,805 shares of Common Stock of the Company, and

         (b)      7,806,715 shares of Common Stock of the Company issuable
                  upon the exercise of outstanding warrants (the "Warrants").

         As your counsel, we have examined such matters and documents as we have
deemed necessary or relevant as a basis for this opinion, and, as to certain
factual matters, we have relied on an Officers' Certificate from the Company. We
have not undertaken any independent investigation to determine the existence or
nonexistence of the facts set forth in that Officers' Certificate, and no
inference as to our knowledge of the existence of such facts should be drawn
from the fact of our representation of the Company in this or other matters.
With respect to securities issued by the Company before such time as we acted as
the Company's counsel, we have relied solely upon a review of the documents
produced by the Company and the above-referenced Officers' Certificate, and we
expressly disclaim any undertaking to ascertain any differences that may exist
with respect to securities that may have been issued in such transactions. We
have also assumed that all conversions or exercises of derivative securities and
all antidilution adjustments were done in accordance with the terms of the
subject security.

         Based on these examinations and the factual information provided to us,
it is our opinion that (1) the Shares described above in clause "(a)" have been
legally issued and are fully paid and non-assessable, and (2) the Shares
described above in clause "(b)" will be legally issued, fully paid and
non-assessable when issued in accordance with the terms of the Warrants.

         We consent to the use of this opinion as an exhibit to the Registration
Statement and to the reference to our firm under the caption "Legal Matters."


                                        Very truly yours,


                                        /s/ Guth|Christopher LLP

                                        Guth|Christopher LLP