Solid-state circuit breaker and control method therefor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12512833-B2
Application number	US-202218699636-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 8, 2022
Priority date	Oct 9, 2021
Publication date	Dec 30, 2025
Grant date	Dec 30, 2025

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a solid-state circuit breaker and a control method therefor. The solid-state circuit breaker comprises a solid-state switch, a first measurement unit, a second measurement unit, a control unit, and a driving unit. The first measurement unit is used to measure the current and/or voltage at a first terminal of the solid-state switch. The second measurement unit is used to measure the current and/or voltage at a second terminal of the solid-state switch. The control unit is used to: when the solid-state switch is turned off, determine whether the first terminal is charged; determine whether the second terminal is charged; control the driving unit to input a pulse voltage to a control terminal of the solid-state switch; and after the pulse duration has ended, determine the type of load.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A solid-state circuit breaker comprising a solid-state switch, a first measurement unit, a second measurement unit, a control unit and a driving unit, wherein
the solid-state switch is connected between a power intake terminal of the solid-state circuit breaker and a load terminal of the solid-state circuit breaker, wherein a first terminal of the solid-state switch is connected to the load terminal and the first measurement unit, a second terminal of the solid-state switch is connected to the power intake terminal and the second measurement unit, a control terminal of the solid-state switch is connected to the driving unit; the first measurement unit is configured to measure a current and/or a voltage at a first terminal of the solid-state switch; the second measurement unit is configured to measure a current and/or a voltage at a second terminal of the solid-state switch; the control unit is configured to:
determine whether the first terminal is charged based on the current and/or voltage at the first terminal in a case that the solid-state switch is turned off;
determine whether the second terminal is charged based on the current and/or voltage at the second terminal in response to determining that the first terminal is not charged;
control the driving unit to input a pulse voltage to a control terminal of the solid-state switch to turn on the solid-state switch for a corresponding pulse duration in response to determining that the second terminal is charged;
determine a type of a load to which the first terminal of the solid-state switch is connected based on a changing pattern of the current at the first terminal or a changing pattern of the voltage at the first terminal after the pulse duration ends.

2 . The solid-state circuit breaker of claim 1 , wherein determining the type of the load to which the first terminal of the solid-state switch is connected based on the changing pattern of the current at the first terminal comprises:
calculating a current decay time constant based on the current at the first terminal; and determining that the load to which the first terminal of the solid-state switch is connected is an inductive load in response to determining that the current decay time constant is greater than a current decay time threshold, and determining that the load to which the first terminal of the solid-state switch is connected is a capacitive load or a resistive load in response to determining that the current decay time constant is less than or equal to the current decay time threshold.

3 . The solid-state circuit breaker of claim 2 , wherein the current decay time constant is a time for a peak value of the current at the first terminal to decay from a first current peak value to a second current peak value, the first current peak value corresponds to the maximum peak value of the current at the first terminal after the pulse duration ends, and the second current peak value corresponds to a predetermined percentage of the first current peak value.

4 . The solid-state circuit breaker of claim 1 , wherein determining the type of the load to which the first terminal of the solid-state switch is connected based on the changing pattern of the voltage at the first terminal comprises:
determining that the load to which the first terminal of the solid-state switch is connected is an inductive load in response to determining that a spike voltage occurs at the first terminal after the pulse duration ends; and determining that the load to which the first terminal of the solid-state switch is connected is a capacitive load or a resistive load in response to determining that no spike voltage occurs at the first terminal after the pulse duration ends.

5 . The solid-state circuit breaker of claim 4 , wherein determining that the load to which the first terminal of the solid-state switch is connected is a capacitive load or a resistive load comprises:
calculating a first voltage decay time constant based on the voltage at the first terminal; and determining that the load to which the first terminal of the solid-state switch is connected is a capacitive load in response to determining that the first voltage decay time constant is greater than a first voltage decay time threshold, and determining that the load to which the first terminal of the solid-state switch is connected is a resistive load in response to determining that the first voltage decay time constant is less than or equal to the first voltage decay time threshold.

6 . The solid-state circuit breaker of claim 5 , wherein the first voltage decay time constant is a time for a peak value of the voltage at the first terminal to decay from a first voltage peak value to a second voltage peak value, the first voltage peak value corresponds to a maximum peak value of the voltage at the first terminal after the pulse duration ends, and the second voltage peak value corresponds to a predetermined percentage of the first voltage peak value.

7 . The solid-state circuit breaker of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the first terminal is charged based on the voltage at the first terminal comprises:
calculating a first voltage root mean square (RMS) value based on the voltage at the first terminal; and determining that the first terminal is not charged in response to determining that the first voltage RMS value is less than a first voltage threshold; and determining that the first terminal is charged in response to determining that the first voltage RMS value is greater than or equal to the first voltage threshold.

8 . The solid-state circuit breaker of claim 1 , wherein determining whether the second terminal is charged based on the voltage at the second terminal comprises:
calculating a second voltage root mean square (RMS) value based on the voltage at the second terminal; and determining that the second terminal is charged in response to determining that the second voltage RMS value is greater than a second voltage threshold; and determining that the second terminal is not charged in response to determining that the second voltage RMS value is less than or equal to the second voltage threshold.

9 . The solid-state circuit breaker of claim 1 , wherein the control unit is further configured to:
determine whether the voltage at the first terminal is a DC voltage or an AC voltage in response to determining that the first terminal is charged; determine that the solid-state circuit breaker is applied as a bus-tie switch or is in a reverse intake powering state in response to determining that the voltage at the first terminal is the AC voltage, and issue a prompt to a user; calculate a second voltage decay time constant based on the voltage at the first terminal in response to determining that the voltage at the first terminal is the DC voltage, wherein the second voltage decay time constant is a time for the voltage at the first terminal to decay from a current voltage value to a predetermined percentage of the current voltage value; and determine that the load to which the first terminal of the solid-state switch is connected is a large capacitor or a DC power supply in response to determining that the second voltage decay time constant is greater than a second voltage decay time threshold, and determine that the load to which the first terminal of the solid-state switch is connected is a capacitive load in response to determining that the second voltage decay time constant is less than or equal to the second voltage decay time threshold.

10 . The solid-state circuit breaker of claim 1 , wherein controlling the driving unit to input the pulse voltage to the control terminal of the solid-state swit

Assignees

• Schneider Electric Ind Sas

Inventors

• Shi Ying
• Dong Jihua
• Chen Jiangang

Classifications

• G01R19/16576

  comparing DC or AC voltage with one threshold (G01R19/16514, G01R19/16519, G01R19/16528, G01R19/16533 and G01R19/1659 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01R19/02

  Measuring effective values, i.e. root-mean-square values · CPC title

• H03K2217/0027

  Measuring means of, e.g. currents through or voltages across the switch · CPC title

• H03K17/18

  Modifications for indicating state of switch · CPC title

• H02H3/38

  responsive to both voltage and current; responsive to phase angle between voltage and current · CPC title