Abstract

The dc circuit breaker plays an important protection role in the dc distribution systems. Hybrid dc circuit breaker (HCB) offers low conduction losses and reasonably fast response times. In this article, a high power density, modular, and scalable power electronic interrupter (PEI) design is introduced for medium-voltage (MV) HCB platforms. Following this concept, the single low-voltage module is first investigated in terms of the high pulse current ratio and the voltage clamping circuit. After the comparison and test among different devices, a compact module with 1.7-kV discrete IGBTs are selected as main switches. While the voltage clamping circuit is carefully designed to guarantee no tail current bump and sufficient turn-off voltage margin. Next the whole system with series modules is optimized on the aspects of the turn-off strategy, power supply structure, and layout of modules. An improved staged turn-off scheme is proposed, which can not only reduce the peak current and total metal oxide varistor (MOV) energy, but also help balance the MOV energy distribution. A 12-kV and 1-kV breaking capable PEI was demonstrated based on the proposed PEI design, achieving a peak power density of 7.4 kW/cm(3), much higher than the IGBT module-based solution. The breaking capability and effectiveness of the modular PEI is demonstrated in a 6-kV MVDC HCB device.