Testing Solid State DC Circuit Breakers for Electrified Aircraft Applications

With the ever increasing power demand for next generation aircraft, hybrid propulsion and more electrical systems, fault detection and protection are crucial to flight safety and reliable operations, especially for DC distribution network. Solid State Circuit Breakers (SSCB) using state of the art (SOA) wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor devices are potential candidates to meet the fast action, high power density and high efficiency requirements for aerospace electrical systems. The objective of this paper is to introduce test methods to evaluate the operation and performance of these fast-acting protection devices. A literature review of the current SSCB technology is included in the introduction, followed by the design phase test criteria. Test circuits and experimental setup for both the dynamic breaking and steady state efficiency evaluations are described in detailed. Fault current interruption capability and to verify efficiency at nominal operating conditions of a medium voltage DC (MVDC) SSCB were demonstrated and verified through the test results.