Si IGBT and SiC MOSFET Hybrid Switch-Based Solid State Circuit Breaker for DC Applications

This paper proposed a Si IGBT and SiC MOSFET hybrid switch (Si/SiC HyS)-based solid-state circuit breaker (SSCB) for the DC applications. At nominal current, the proposed Si/SiC HyS based SSCB has lower semiconductor device losses compared to the pure Si IGBT based SSCB. Compared to the pure SiC MOSFET solution, the proposed Si/SiC HyS SSCB solution has lower device cost. Moreover, benefit from the high overload capability of Si IGBT, the proposed Si/SiC HyS SSCB has higher upper limit of the current-time response profile. The experimental results show that compared to the pure SiC MOSFET-based SSCB, the proposed Si/SiC HyS-based SSCB has a lower surge voltage at the turn-off transient of semiconductor devices. The lower surge voltage helps to reduce the gate voltage oscillation and avoid the device false turn-on. The overload testing results show that the proposed Si/SiC HyS-based SSCB has higher overload capability than the pure SiC MOSFET-based solution. The proposed Si/SiC HyS-based SSCB can be a cost-effective protection device to improve electrical safety.