Scalable Solid-State Circuit Breaker (SSCB)

Solid-state circuit breakers have significant advantage over electromechanically relays due to the use of various types of solid-state transistors used to control the power flow. These transistors are generally much faster than their mechanical counterparts, switching orders of magnitude, hence allowing superior fault isolation capabilities. Unfortunately, the currently available current and voltage range of solid-state circuit breakers do not cover the specifications for the MEA or Army hybrid vehicle requirements. The limitations of the current solid-state relays are inherent to the fact that the switching transistors are built upon silicon technology. Silicon Carbide (SiC) JFET technology from SemiSouth has the ability to dramatically eliminate this current limitation, and impact near-term revolutionary system insertion opportunities. The optimal solution will be to develop a complete Solid State Circuit Breaker based on this innovative, reliable, scalable SiC Vertical JFET technology. During this Phase I program, SemiSouth will develop leverage existing Air Force funded development and prototype funding of large area 800V/20A SiC VJFET devices to build a prototype 600V/50A SSCB module and provide complete characterization of the module’s electrical characteristics and thermal design space in anticipation of scaling the VJFETs and SSCB design to 1200V and 200A+.