Solid-State Circuit Breaker With a Gate Driver for Avalanche Voltage Prevention

This paper proposes a solid-state circuit breaker with a gate driver to prevent a power semiconductor device from excessive cutoff stress. Solid-state circuit breakers are subjected to large inductive energy during the cutoff operations, resulting in compromises in the avalanche robustness and reliability of the power semiconductor device. The proposed solid-state circuit breaker adjusts switching transient speeds using the gate driver, preventing the semiconductor device from avalanche operations. Eventually, the proposed solid-state circuit breaker eliminates additional clamping circuits. Consequently, the proposed solid-state circuit breaker reduces surge voltage by 43.7% and peak power losses by 70.5% of the stress on the SiC MOSFET. The solid-state circuit breaker with cutoff and current limiting functions is verified based on a 400-V DC distribution system with unclamped inductive switching (UIS) conditions.