Solid-state circuit breakers and related circuits
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Government
InventorDamian P. Urciuoli
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Various solid-state circuit breakers and related circuits are presented herein. These include, among other things, a common node bidirectional solid-state circuit breaker (BDSSCB) having diodes connected between terminals of its switches, a shunt voltage actuated driver (SVAD) circuit for use with a BDSSCB, a SVAD circuit for use with a unidirectional solid-state circuit breaker (UDSSCB), a bipolar current actuated driver (BCAD) for use with a BDSSCB, and a multi-directional solid-state circuit breaker (MDSSCB).
Claims15
A bidirectional solid-state circuit breaker (BDSSCB), the BDSSCB comprising:
- a pair of solid-state switches, each of said solid-state switches having a source, gate and drain, the pair of solid-state switches being electrically connected at a common node, the pair of solid-state switches configured to operate in a normally on mode to conduct current and to be switched off with a bipolar gate current actuation signal causing current flow to cease through one or both of the pair of solid-state switches;
- and a pair of diodes, each of the diodes electrically connecting the gate and either the drain or the source of a respective one of said solid-state switches which is not connected to the common node, wherein the pair of diodes have a lower forward voltage drop during conduction than that of the corresponding gate-to-drain or gate-to-source junctions of the pair of solid-state switches, thereby reducing the conduction current level at which the bipolar gate current actuation of the one or both of the pair of solid-state switches would occur without the diodes present.
A shunt voltage actuated driver (SVAD) circuit for use with a bidirectional solid-state circuit breaker (BDSSCB) having a pair of solid-state power switches, each of said solid-state power switches having a source, gate and drain, wherein the sources of the solid-state power switches are electrically connected to a common node, the SVAD comprising:
- a voltage triggered module configured to connect to said solid-state power switches and the common node of the BDSSCB, the voltage triggered module comprising:
- a first pair of solid-state switches, each of the solid-state switches having a source, gate and drain, the drains of the solid-state switches being configured to electrically connect to one of the respective drains of the pair of solid-state power switches of the BDSSCB;
- and
- a plurality of shunt resistors in series electrically connecting the first pair of solid-state switches, and being configured to electrically connect to the common source node of the BDSSCB,
- wherein the first pair of solid-state switches of the voltage triggered module each have a blocking voltage greater than or equal to that of the respective solid-state power switch of the BDSSCB;
- and
- a voltage sensing and actuation module connected to the voltage triggered module comprising:
- a second pair of solid-state switches;
- one or more shunt resistors configured to generate resistance to enable the BDSSCB to turn off current flow in one or both directions through the BDSSCB, each of the one or more shunt resistors being configured to electrically connect to the common node of the BDSSCB and to a respective one of the second pair of solid-state switches;
- and
- a third pair of solid-state switches,
- wherein one or both of the second pair of solid-state switches is configured to turn on and hold the on-state so long as sufficient voltage is present across the one or more shunt resistors thus turning on and holding one or both of the third pair of solid-state switches in the on-state which turns off one or both of the first pair of solid-state switches, thereby ceasing current flow in one or both directions through one or both of the pair of solid-state power switches of the BDSSCB.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.