USA As Represented by Secretary of the Navy

Di Zhang

A Solid-State Circuit Breaker Device and Method Without Current Limiting Inductor. According to an exemplary embodiment of this disclosure, described is a high-density, high-efficiency megawatt (MW) medium-voltage (MV) solid-state circuit breaker (SSCB) for, example only, aviation hybrid electric propulsion applications. The SSCB is based on the mature silicon (Si) insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) devices. With reduced IGBT gate voltage, the disclosed SSCB can limit the peak fault current without the fault current limiting inductor. Thus, the specific power density of the SSCB is substantially improved compared with the traditional design.

Solid state circuit breaker device and method without current limiter

A solid state circuit breaker that may include a metal oxide varistor (MOV) that is connected in series to a thyristor, the MOV to clamp voltage of current flowing through the solid state circuit breaker; the thyristor including a gate to control flow of the current to the MOV along a first path to the MOV; a breakover diode to activate at a target voltage level to allow the current to flow to the MOV along a second path; and a Zener diode to close the gate and allow current to flow along the first path in response to the current on the second path.

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Carmel, CA, United States of America

Di Zhang