Arc suppression in circuit protective devices

A main breaker for a load center, comprising:

• a solid-state trip switch configured to provide current flow to a plurality of branch breakers;
• and
• a breaker controller configured to control switching of the solid-state trip switch, the breaker controller operable to receive a trigger signal resulting from a fault condition in one of the branch breakers and determine whether the trigger signal satisfies a predefined condition;
• wherein the breaker controller is further operable to temporarily interrupt current flow to the branch breakers and wait for a predefined event before restoring current flow to the branch breakers in response the trigger signal satisfying the predefined condition, wherein the predefined event comprises at least one of (i) a predefined time period substantially equal to a half cycle of a load center current or (ii) an immediately next zero-crossing of a load center voltage.

A method of suppressing arc formation in a load center, comprising:

• receiving, at a main breaker, a trigger signal resulting from a fault condition in one of a plurality of branch breakers in the load center;
• determining, at the main breaker, whether the trigger signal satisfies a predefined condition;
• temporarily interrupting, at the main breaker, current flow to the plurality of branch breakers in response to the trigger signal satisfying the predefined condition;
• and
• restoring, at the main breaker, current flow to the plurality of branch breakers after occurrence of a predefined event, wherein the predefined event comprises at least one of (i) a predefined time period substantially equal to a half cycle of a load center current or (ii) an immediately next zero-crossing of a load center voltage.