Wide-band Gap Devices for DC Breaker Applications

• Main Author: Sodipe, Olukayode O
• Format: Others
• Published: DigitalCommons@CalPoly 2016
• Subjects: Electrical and Electronics; Electronic Devices and Semiconductor Manufacturing; Power and Energy
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/1529; https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2677&context=theses

With the increasing interest in wide-band gap devices, their potential benefits in power applications have been studied and explored with numerous studies conducted for both SiC and GaN devices. This thesis investigates the use of wide-band gap devices as the switching element in a semiconductor DC breaker. It involves the design of an efficient semiconductor DC breaker, its simulation in SPICE, construction of a hardware prototype and the comparative study of SiC and Si versions of the aforementioned breaker. The results obtained from the experiments conducted in the process of concluding this thesis show that the SiC version of the breaker is a superior option for a semiconductor DC breaker.