1MW bi-directional DC solid state circuit breaker based on air cooled reverse blocking-IGCT

In this paper, we present the development of an air-cooled 1MW bi-directional DC Solid State Circuit Breaker (SSCB) based on recently developed 91mm, 2.5kV Reverse Blocking-IGCT (RB-IGCT). The power electronic switch (RB-IGCT) has been designed and optimized to have very low conduction losses, less than 1kW at 1kA (on-state voltage drop <; 1V at 1kA, 400K) and high turn-off current capability (> 6.5kA at 1.6kV, 400K) which are the most important concerns of semiconductor based circuit breaker. We also present the simulation and experimental results at the system level i.e. analyzed the influence of the Surge Arrester (SA) on the over-voltage transients during current interruption. We also analyzed the thermal management for the newly developed SSCB using ANSYS Icepak and validated experimentally.