INTELLIGENT CIRCUIT BREAKERS WITH SOLID-STATE BIDIRECTIONAL SWITCHES

• Main Authors: Alton, Kenneth D, Gerber, Stephen C, Baker, Damon M, Telefus, Mark
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 19.11.2020
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTINGELECTRIC POWER; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; ELECTRIC SWITCHES; ELECTRICITY; EMERGENCY PROTECTIVE DEVICES; GENERATION; RELAYS; SELECTORS; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY

A circuit breaker comprises a solid-state bidirectional switch, a switch control circuit, current and voltage sensors, and a processor. The solid-state bidirectional switch is connected between a line input terminal and a load output terminal of the circuit breaker, and configured to be placed in a switched-on state and a switched-off state. The switch control circuit control operation of the bidirectional switch. The current sensor is configured to sense a magnitude of current flowing in an electrical path between the line input and load output terminals and generate a current sense signal. The voltage sensor is configured to sense a magnitude of voltage on the electrical path and generate a voltage sense signal. The processor is configured to process the current and voltage sense signals to determine operational status information of the circuit breaker, a fault event, and power usage information of a load connected to the load output terminal.