Monolithic and static current limiter and circuit breaker

• Main Authors: SANCHEZ, JEAN-LOUIS, JALLADE, JEAN, QUOIRIN, JEAN-BAPTISTE
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 25.06.1997
• Edition: 6
• Subjects: CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRICITY; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS; GENERATION

The static monolithic current limiter and circuit breaker comprises two terminals (A,K), between which there is a uni-directional current limiter (1), and a detector (2) sensing the voltage between the terminals. A switch device (3) is arranged to inhibit conduction through the current limiter when the detected voltage exceeds a given threshold. The voltage detector is formed by a potential divider (2) connected between the terminals, with its mid-point providing the output indication. This potential divider may be constructed from two MOS transistors with N-type depletion channels connected in series. The current limiter may also be an MOS transistor with an N-type depletion channel of vertical format. Alternatively this limiter may be a vertical IGBT type transistor with a depletion channel, and in yet another configuration may be a bipolar transistor used in conjunction with an N-type depletion MOS transistor. La présente invention concerne un composant statique et monolithique limiteur de courant et disjoncteur comprenant, entre deux bornes (A) et (K), un limiteur de courant à conduction unidirectionnelle (1), un détecteur (2) de la tension entre lesdites bornes, et un moyen d'inhibition (3) de la conduction du limiteur de courant quand la tension détectée dépasse un seuil déterminé.