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Flexible direct current (DC) grids face a serious challenge in terms of rapidly isolating DC faults. A DC circuit breaker is an effective solution for DC fault isolation. To improve the fault-isolation and reclosing capability of flexible DC systems, a new high voltage direct current (HVDC) circuit breaker topology with adaptive reclosing capability is proposed in this paper. The topology of the circuit breaker is a T-shaped structure, which has the ability to break the current in both directions and effectively reduce the cost of components. Meanwhile, after the fault is cleared, the circuit breaker is controlled to inject a voltage signal into the line. Based on this, to prevent the circuit breaker reclosing in the event of a permanent fault from having an impact on the system, a method for fault identification based on Euclidean distance that uses the voltage signal to identify the fault properties is proposed. Finally, the performance of the circuit breaker is simulated and verified by PSCAD/EMTDC simulation software, and compared with the typical existing circuit breakers to verify the effectiveness of the circuit breaker and reclosing scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid DC circuit breakers (HDCCBs) have excellent performance in terms of breaking speed and low losses and have become the mainstream technology for dc fault isolation in dc grids. However, because of the breaking limitation of the solid-state branch in HdcCBs, the existing HdcCBs are still weak in breaking high current. Although the breaking ability can be improved by series and parallel devices, the cost will increase rapidly, and it is very difficult to share current by paralleling a single type of device. This article proposes a novel HdcCB topology that combines two types of power electronic devices in solid-state branches to meet the requirement of a large breaking capacity in dc grids. The structure and breaking principles of this novel topology, which aims to break high current, are introduced. The design methods of the key parameters are presented. Then, the current breaking ability of the novel topology is verified by developing a prototype completing a 10 kV/60 kA breaking test in 3 ms. Finally, this novel topology is compared with other dc circuit breakers at the same breaking level, which shows that this novel topology has obvious advantages in cost and volume with fewer devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multiterminal dc (MTDC) grid plays an important role in large-scale power transmission and renewable energy integration owing to its excellent performance. However, there are still some problems existing in the MTDC grid, such as difficult fault current interruption and current flow control, which impedes its development. Currently, the mentioned two problems can be separately solved by hybrid dc circuit breaker (HCB) and current flow controller (CFC). However, when configured separately, they are expensive and have large footprints. Therefore, this article proposes a multiport hybrid dc circuit breaker (MHCB) with current flow control capability. The HCBs near the same dc bus are first integrated into a single MHCB and then novel CFCs are embedded into the MHCB to replace the load commutation switches. Compared with the existing MHCBs, the proposed topology shows advantages in the aspects of implementation cost, power loss, and operation speed. The operation principle is analyzed and the basis for parameter design is given in detail. The effectiveness of the proposed topology is verified by extensive simulations and experiments. Besides, the proposed MHCB is compared with the existing solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modular multilevel converter (MMC) has become one of the most favored topologies in medium-voltage and high-voltage (HV) applications. However, it still suffers from some drawbacks, including a lot of sizeable capacitors, high conduction losses, and no dc-fault ride-through capability. To circumvent these issues, this article presents a modified MMC, namely hybrid-leg MMC (HL-MMC). HL-MMC integrates a pair of three-phase line-frequency commutated HV voltage source converters (VSC) to replace up to 40% MMC submodules (SMs), leading to lower cost and conduction losses. Due to the ripple energy cancellation in the three-phase HV VSCs, the total energy storage requirement in HL-MMC could be also reduced, leading to up to 30% energy storage capacitance reduction compared with MMC. In addition, by combing the dc hybrid circuit breaker, the HV VSCs in the proposed HL-MMC also help provides the dc fault blocking capability, enabling a dc-fault tolerant HL-MMC without using the full-bridge (FB) MMC SMs. Therefore, a significant device and loss saving can be attained compared with the traditional MMC with FB SMs. The detailed converter operational analysis, control method, high-voltage direct current simulation model, and scale-down prototype are provided to validate the effectiveness of proposed topology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has been widely accepted to apply dc circuit breakers (DCCBs) to protect dc grids. Nevertheless, existing DCCBs have one or more following limitations: insulation recovery scheme of mechanical switch, additional precharge power supply, high conduction loss, unreliable current-breaking process, and unidirectional design. In this letter, a new DCCB with low conduction loss, simple precharging scheme, and reliable breaking ability is proposed. The proposed DCCB could break both fault and operating current actively with the same simple operation sequences. Moreover, bidirectional topology possessing all advantages mentioned previously is also presented. Topology introduction, parameters designing, and scaled-down experiment of the proposed DCCB are all presented in the letter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reliability of meshed DC grids mainly relies on their ability in DC fault protection and line power flow managing. Multiple DC circuit breakers (DCCB) and current flow controller (CFC) need to be installed, which significantly increases the system cost. A novel current flow controller integrated with hybrid dc circuit breaker (CFC-IHCB) is proposed to significantly reduce the loss and cost of the whole system. Only one unidirectional IGBT string based main breaker branch is needed for n lines, and the CFC function is integrated into the load communication switches (LCSs). The basic working principle of proposed topology is presented and analyzed. The functionality is verified and a comparison of the proposed solution and other DCCB/CFC solutions is given based on a multi-terminal HVDC system case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hybrid dc circuit breaker (HDCCB) is one of the most promising solutions for the dc interruption. But the power electronics-based load commutation switch (LCS) in the main current path causes the high on-state loss and cost, which inhibits the application of the HDCCB. In this paper, a novel hybrid dc circuit breaker is proposed, in which the vacuum interrupter with the external transverse magnetic field (ETMF) is designed to improve the arc voltage and thus enhance the current commutation to power electronics. The ETMF-based vacuum interrupter achieves the fast current commutation instead of the LCS, which realizes the low on-state loss and cost while preserving the short commutation and interruption time. The arc voltage characteristic with ETMF is analyzed, and the influence of the different factors on the commutation time and di/dt before current zero are investigated in detail. Based on the calculation results, a 10 kV dc breaker prototype based on the proposed topology is developed with the breaking current of 15.5 kA. Finally, the application of the proposed scheme in HVdc grids is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid dc circuit breakers (HCBs) are recognized as suitable devices for protecting high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) systems, along with other dc circuit breakers (DCCB). However, compared to mechanical circuit breakers, HCBs exhibit higher conduction losses. Such losses are inevitable under no-fault conditions as current may flow through some of the semiconductor switches. An integrated circuit breaker (ICB) minimizing these losses is presented in this paper, and this is achieved by replacing semiconductor switches by mechanical components in the current path. For completeness, the topology design, operating sequence and a mathematical analysis for component sizing of the device are provided. In addition, an estimation of the conduction losses is quantified. It is estimated that the power losses of an ICB are 2 to 30% of an HCB only. The ICB has been implemented in PSCAD/EMTDC to demonstrate its effectiveness for isolating dc faults, with simulations conducted on a three-terminal HVDC grid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long pulse gas lasers utilizing double-discharge circuits are different from the single-short pulse gas lasers in that they do not require all of the desired energy to be deposited into the peaking capacitors prior to ignition of the main gap. Instead, the majority of the energy is held in another capacitor that is then discharged in the form of a longer duration discharge pulse output compared with that of single-short pulse lasers. Extended stability of the discharge is typically achieved by igniting the main gap discharge at higher ignition voltages. Several double-discharge circuit topologies exist in the literature. However, each topology has its own disadvantages primarily centered around the components needed and the resulting complexity. In this article we introduce the application of the new hybrid circuit pulsed power topology as a double-discharge circuit with high ignition voltages. The hybrid circuit pulsed power topology was originally published by the authors of this article in their previous publication titled “A New Hybrid Pulsed Power Circuit Topology for Gas Laser Applications.” The advantage of the hybrid circuit as a double-discharge circuit is that it does not require any special device [e.g., semiconductor opening switch (SOS) diode] and can use commonly available components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Autonomous-driving features necessitate a fault-tolerant (FT) power-management unit in 48-V automotive applications. This article presents a monolithic single-phase closed-loop masterless FT four-to-one hybrid Dickson converter IC for high-conversion-ratio 48-V automotive multi-phase applications. The chip includes: 1) a mixed-signal droop-based valley-current ON-time quasi-fixed-frequency control, which enables masterless multi-phase operation capability; 2) single-point short-circuit fault and open-circuit fault detection and blocking of any power switches or flying capacitors; 3) an optimized high-voltage (HV) power stage with fully integrated flying-capacitor-sourced gate drivers without any external bootstrap capacitors; 4) a glitch-free cross-coupled bootstrapped HV level shifter; and 5) a dual-leg bidirectional closed-loop current-sensing circuit optimized for the hybrid Dickson topology. The design was fabricated in a 0.13- $\mu \text{m}$ 90-V automotive silicon-on-insulator (SOI) bipolar-CMOS–DMOS (BCD) process. The measured results confirm the operation over 20–60-V input, 3.3-V nominal output, 3-A maximum load, and 320-kHz effective switching frequency within the automotive-grade −40 °C–+125 °C ambient temperature. The design achieves above 90% measured efficiency at maximum conversion ratio and load at room temperature. A three-phase system is used to evaluate and confirm the fault-blocking capability and continuous power delivery upon detection of a fault. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two key challenges in meshed multi-terminal dc (MTdc) grids are line power flow management and fault current interruption, which can be solved by current flow controllers (CFCs) and hybrid dc circuit breakers (HCBs), respectively. However, the power losses and the implementation costs of CFCs and HCBs are relatively high. In order to overcome these drawbacks, a combined HCB (CHCB) is proposed in this article by fully utilizing the core ideas of the interline dual H-bridge CFC and the HCB. The proposed device can substitute multiple HCBs at a dc bus with greatly reduced cost. In addition to the fault current interruption capability, the current flows in the adjacent lines can be controlled by the embedded multi-line CFC in the CHCB expanded from the existing interline dual H-bridge CFC. The system-level behavior of the proposed CHCB is similar to the separate solution of the typical HCB and the multi-line CFC. Extensive simulations and experiments verify the effectiveness of the proposed device. Besides, a comparison of the proposed CHCB and the separate solution is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The diode bridge submodule (SM) is one of the basic units of a hybrid high-voltage dc circuit breaker. This article works on the low inductance design of a single SM and series SMs. For the layout design of a single SM, this article proposes a simple and clear +-shaped SM layout, the low inductance design is simplified to the optimization of two laminated busbars with a simple structure. Based on the +-shaped SM layout, this article further proposes an SM structure with holes in diodes region, the stray inductance is further reduced, and only one integrated laminated busbar is needed in a single SM. For the layout design of series SMs, this article makes full use of the layout of a single SM and the mutual inductances between the SMs, series SMs are alternately connected in reverse. The single SM layout proposed in this article is effective in reducing the stray inductance. The loop stray inductance in stage II reduced from 148.4 to 72.3 nH, a 51.3% reduction. When the two parallel IGBTs turn off a 6 kA fault current in 2 μs, the voltage spike is reduced from 786.1 to 423.4 V, a 46.1% reduction. And the stray inductance difference of the bidirectional current path is controlled to about 10 nH. The layout of series SMs proposed in this article is effective in reducing the length of the series SMs, the length is reduced by 16.7%. The experimental results show that the SMs layout proposed in this article is effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major decision surrounding the design of pulsed power circuits for gas lasers is the choice between a thyratron and solid-state switches. The thyratron is a mature device technology whose cost is increasing. The ratings of solid-state switches still do not match those of a thyratron. Pulse transformer and pulse compression circuits must be added to overcome the lower ratings of solid-state switches leading to a higher parts count and cost. This article proposes a new solid-state pulse power topology called the hybrid circuit topology to address the parts count and cost issue. The hybrid circuit makes use of a combination of capacitive and inductive energy storage to reduce the time required to transfer the energy from the transformer primary to the secondary side. This ultimately reduces the quantity of magnetic material used in the pulse compression circuit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hybrid circuit breaker (HCB) has shown good performance for interrupting dc fault current. However, a massive number of IGBTs in series is needed. These will lead to high costs and significant difficulty in balancing IGBT dynamic voltage. This paper proposes a bidirectional hybrid circuit breaker based on a cascaded half-bridge submodule structure to reduce the overall costs and implementation difficulty of HCB. The number of IGBTs is reduced by 50%, and the operating speed is fast enough. A model of a four-terminal modular multilevel converter (MMC) system with a proposed hybrid circuit breaker in different stages is developed to describe the fault blocking process more clearly. The performance of the proposed HCB is validated and compared with other HCB structure through both theoretical derivation and time-domain simulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A mechanical switch can be used instead of a power electronic load commutation switch in orderto reduce the losses during normal power flow in standard hybrid DC circuit breakers. The success of current commutation in such hybrid breakers depends on the arc voltage formed across the contacts in the mechanical switch. The behaviour of rapidly elongated, wall constricted arcsgenerated during the opening of an ultra-fast mechanical switch in the air is studied here. The voltage-current characteristics of the generated arcs are obtained for steady state contact opening velocities of 6, 11 and 21 m/s. It is found that the arc voltage at a given current and contact separation increases with the contact opening velocity. It is shown that stationary,zero-contact-velocity characteristics can not be used to accurately quantify the voltage build-up in fast elongating arcs in hybrid breakers. A best-fitting black-box equation for the dynamic arc characteristics is presented for the tested velocities. The obtained voltage-current characteristics are used as input to simulate the current commutation process in a 12 kV hybridDC circuit breaker case-study. Different scenarios of current commutation failure related to the arc voltage build up are identified. It is shown that these failures scenarios can be avoided by increasing the contact opening velocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]