Photoconductive switches for AC circuit protection

Author

Triaros, Christos P. ; Carroll, Dennis P. ; Lindholm, Fredrik A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Florida Univ., Gainesville, FL, USA

Volume

37

Issue

12

fYear

1990

fDate

12/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2526

Lastpage

2531

Abstract

The basic suitability of the photoconductive circuit element (PCE) for protective switching applications in AC power transmission and distribution circuits is examined. Specific applications include circuit breakers and fault-current limiters. This work considers a hybrid switching mechanism, which consists of a parallel arrangement of the PCE with a low-capacity mechanical switch. Electrical, optical, and thermal models are developed for the PCE device, which are incorporated in a system-level computer simulation of a power test circuit. Simulation results show the feasibility of the hybrid switching concept, although device sizes appear to be relatively large due to thermal dissipation requirements

Keywords

circuit breakers; photoconducting devices; power system protection; power transmission; semiconductor switches; AC circuit protection; AC power transmission; circuit breakers; device sizes; distribution circuits; fault-current limiters; hybrid switching mechanism; low-capacity mechanical switch; photoconductive circuit element; power test circuit; protective switching applications; system-level computer simulation; thermal dissipation requirements; Application software; Circuit breakers; Circuit faults; Circuit testing; Optical devices; Optical switches; Photoconducting devices; Power transmission; Protection; Switching circuits;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.64529

Filename

64529