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High-temperature superconductors (HTS) could enable high-field magnets stronger than is possible with Nb-Ti and Nb 3 Sn, but two challenges have so far been the low engineering critical current density J E , especially in high-current cables, and the danger of quenches. Most HTS magnets made so far have been made out of REBCO coated conductor. Here we demonstrate stable, reliable and training-quench-free performance of Bi-2212 racetrack coils wound with a Rutherford cable fabricated from wires made with a new precursor powder. These round multifilamentary wires exhibited a record J E up to 950 A/mm 2 at 30 T at 4.2 K. These coils carried up to 8.6 kA while generating 3.5 T at 4.2 K at a J E of 1020 A/mm 2 . Different from the unpredictable training performance of Nb-Ti and Nb 3 Sn magnets, these Bi-2212 magnets showed no training quenches and entered the flux flow state in a stable manner before thermal runaway and quench occurred. Also different from Nb-Ti, Nb 3 Sn, and REBCO magnets for which localized thermal runaways occur at unpredictable locations, the quenches of Bi-2212 magnets consistently occurred in the high field regions over a long conductor length. These characteristics make quench detection simple, enabling safe protection, and suggest a new paradigm of constructing quench-predictable superconducting magnets from Bi-2212.

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Quench protection is a remaining challenge impeding the implementation of high temperature superconductor (HTS)-based magnet applications. This is due primarily to the slow normal zone propagation velocity (NZPV) observed in Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O X (Bi2212) and (RE)Ba 2 Cu 3 O 7 − x (REBCO) systems. Recent computational and experimental findings reveal significant improvements in turn-to-turn NZPV, resulting in a magnet that is more stable and easier to protect through three-dimensional normal zone growth (Phillips M 2009; Ishmael S et al 2013 IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 23 7201311). These improvements are achieved by replacing conventional insulation materials, such as Kapton and mullite braid, with a thin, thermally conducting, electrically-insulating ceramic oxide coating. This paper reports on the temperaturedependent thermal properties, electrical breakdown limits and microstructural characteristics of a titanium oxide (TiO 2 ) insulation and a doped-TiO 2 -based proprietary insulation (doped-TiO 2 ) shown previously to enhance quench behavior (Ishmael S et al 2013 IEEE Trans. Appl. Supercond. 23 7201311). Breakdown voltages at 77 K ranging from ∼1.5 kV to over 5 kV are reported. At 4.2 K, the TiO 2 increases the thermal conductivity of polyimide by about a factor of 10. With the addition of a dopant, thermal conductivity is increased by an additional 13%, and a high temperature heat treatment increases it by nearly an additional 100%. Similar increases are observed at 77 K and room temperature. These results are understood in the context of the various microstructures observed.

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