Abstract
This chapter describes the design, simulation, fabrication, and characterization of a solid-state DC circuit breaker based on a normally-off, light-triggered, gallium nitride photoconductive switch combined with a cascaded, normally-on, silicon carbide junction field-effect transistor circuit leg. This design provides a very fast response time to fault events. Simulations of the various parts of the breaker and their predicted behavior in system designs have guided a first hardware demonstration. Circuit breaker voltage and current timing diagrams illustrate the interplay between different parts of the breaker and the sensitivity of the timing. The experimental performance closely matches the predicted behavior, allowing voltage and current scaling for future designs.
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Acknowledgments
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA-0003525. The views expressed in the article do not necessarily represent the views of the US Department of Energy or the United States Government. The work described herein was funded by the ARPA-E BREAKERS program directed by Dr. Isik C. Kizilyalli.
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Flicker, J.D. et al. (2023). Light-Triggered Solid-State Circuit Breaker for DC Electrical Systems. In: Kizilyalli, I.C., Shen, Z.J., Cunningham, D.W. (eds) Direct Current Fault Protection. Power Systems. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26572-3_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26572-3_9
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