A Solid-State Current Limiting Switch for Application of Large-scale Space Power Systems

The International Space Station (ISS) being assembled on orbit is using 120 V DC electric power systems and one of good example of the large-scale space power systems. In order to prevent the fault propagation, provide protection against overload and fault, and isolate the faulty load and equipment in the large-scale space power systems using high voltage direct current, a solid state type of power switching device which has the current limiting function must be applied to the switching gear for the electric power management and control system. A solid state remote power controller (RPC) has been developed and assembled for the Japanese Experimental Module (JEM) electric power system. An RPC has a unique capability to limit short term over-current through the power device (Power MOSFET) operation in the active region. In this paper, the approach of the developing the CLS (current limiting switch), which is the very basic function model of the RPC, will be described for the large-scale space power systems. The evaluation for the CLS by experiment and analysis will be shown in this paper. The experiment result of the CLS in the network coordination with upstream and downstream will be also shown in this paper.