Abstract
Silicon carbide (SiC) metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) have the advantages of high-frequency switching capability and the capability to withstand high temperatures, which are suitable for switching devices in a direct current (DC) solid state circuit breaker (SSCB). To guarantee fast and reliable action of a 400 V DC SSCB with SiC MOSFET, circuit design and prototype development were carried out. Taking 400V DC microgrid as research background, firstly, the topology of DC SSCB with SiC MOSFET was introduced. Then, the drive circuit of SiC MOSFET, fault detection circuit, energy absorption circuit, and snubber circuit of the SSCB were designed and analyzed. Lastly, a prototype of the DC SSCB with SiC MOSFET was developed, tested, and compared with the SSCB with Silicon (Si) insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT). Experimental results show that the designed circuits of SSCB with SiC MOSFET are valid. Also, the developed miniature DC SSCB with the SiC MOSFET exhibits faster reaction to the fault and can reduce short circuit time and fault current in contrast with the SSCB with Si IGBT. Hence, the proposed SSCB can better meet the requirements of DC microgrid protection.
Highlights
Direct current (DC) microgrids have elicited increasing attention in recent years, because they have a simple structure and are easy to control [1,2]
Existing circuit breaker techniques can be classified into three types: mechanical circuit breaker, hybrid circuit breaker, and solid state circuit breaker [6,7,8,9,10]
A hybrid circuit breaker is composed of a mechanical switch and parallel power devices
Summary
Direct current (DC) microgrids have elicited increasing attention in recent years, because they have a simple structure and are easy to control [1,2]. The mechanical circuit breaker can handle high current, electric arcing caused contact erosion reduces the lifetime and the disadvantage of long break time further limits its application. A hybrid circuit breaker is composed of a mechanical switch and parallel power devices. A solid state circuit breaker (SSCB) is composed of power devices and related circuits to realize the interruption of fault current. Zhou et al [21] introduced a digital SSCB with SiC MOSFET to identify inrush current, but the fault clearing time was long, which is adverse to the equipment protection in the power system. The designed SSCB exhibits fast interrupting characteristics, which provide guidance for improving the performance of SSCB and the application of SSCB with SiC MOSFET
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