Active Clamping Modeling for Electronic Fuses in the Vehicular Low-Voltage Power Supply

Electronic fuses isolate faults faster than conventional melting fuses and offer advanced protection mechanisms. Hence, they significantly contribute to the stability of future vehicles' power supplies. However, the rising number of components in the vehicular power supply increases the number of electronic fuses and, thereby, the size of the power distributor they are integrated into. For this reason, it is aimed to reduce the size of the electronic fuses' protection circuit, ensuring a reliable operation as far as possible. This paper investigates the behavior of the active clamping mechanism in electronic fuses when the drain and gate are coupled by a Zener diode. Hence, an equivalent circuit model with parasitic effects and the piece-wise state-space modeling are derived. This model is then verified by measurements done at an automotive test bench. Beyond that, the influence of a snubber path to decrease the dissipation on the semiconductor is investigated. This topic is concluded by some implementation recommendations for the parameterization of the utilized components.