A Shared Voltage Reference Based Gate Drive and Current Sensing Architecture for n-channel SSPC

Solid state power controller (SSPC) is a power switching and protecting device, replacing electromechanical relays and circuit breakers in power distribution systems. However, a common power line n-channel SSPC conventionally requires n transistor switches for n loads, n isolated gate drive and n isolated load current sensing circuits. It means complex, bulky, costly, and reliability-risky to overall SSPC system. Thus, this study proposed a switch control and current sensing architecture with few isolation components for multichannel SSPC. In detail, a shared voltage reference circuit scheme for gate drive and current sensing for SSPC is developed. Then, the circuit principle is quantitatively analyzed based on widely used 28 VDC load power. Next, a circuit simulation test of switching-on and -off is performed for validating the design. Finally, a prototype is made for evaluating the performance of the shared voltage reference based SSPC. Results show that the SSPC can individually switch on and off multi-loads within $33.1 \mu$ s and $16.7 \mu \mathrm{~s}$, and trip in short circuit current 450A within $120 \mu \mathrm{~s}$. This architecture based multichannel SSPC is promising for use in power distribution applications on aircraft and satellite.