Operation and design considerations of FID at distribution voltages

“…Molded case mechanical circuit breakers suffer from slow response time (typically several tens of milliseconds) and low lifetime due to arcing [7]. Solid state circuit breakers (SSCB) using silicon IGBTs or IGCTs as main static switches were reported [10]- [12]. In these SSCBs, the overcurrent on the DC bus due to a short circuit fault is usually sensed by a current sensor.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A self-powered ultra-fast DC solid state circuit breaker using a normally-on SiC JFET

Miao

Sabui

Chen

et al. 2015

2015 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC)

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This paper introduces a new self-powered solid state circuit breaker (SSCB) concept using a normally-on SiC JFET as the main static switch and a fast-starting isolated DC/DC converter as the protection driver. The new SSCB detects short circuit faults by sensing its drain-source voltage rise, and draws power from the fault condition to turn and hold off the SiC JFET. The new two-terminal SSCB can be directly placed in a circuit branch without requiring any external power supply or additional wiring. A unique low power isolated DC/DC converter is designed and optimized to provide a fast reaction to a short circuit event. The SSCB prototypes have experimentally demonstrated a fault current interruption capability up to 180 amperes at a DC bus voltage of 400 volts within 0.8 microseconds. DC circuit protection applications provide a unique market opportunity for wide bandgap power semiconductor devices outside the conventional focus on power electronic converter applications.

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