Over-voltage protection system and method

Title: Over-voltage protection system and method

An over-voltage protection system includes an electronic valve connected across two terminals of a circuit and an over-voltage detection circuit connected across one of the plurality of semiconductor devices for detecting an over-voltage across the circuit. The electronic valve includes a plurality of semiconductor devices connected in series. The over-voltage detection circuit includes a voltage divider circuit connected to a break-over diode in a way to provide a representative low voltage to the break-over diode and an optocoupler configured to receive a current from the break-over diode when the representative low voltage exceeds a threshold voltage of the break-over diode indicating an over-voltage condition. The representative low voltage provided to the break-over diode represents a voltage across the one semiconductor device. A plurality of self-powered gate drive circuits are connected to the plurality of semiconductor devices, wherein the plurality of self-powered gate drive circuits receive over-voltage triggering pulses from the optocoupler during the over-voltage condition and switch on the plurality of semiconductor devices to bypass the circuit.

Inventors:: Chi, Song; Dong, Dong; Lai, Rixin

Issue Date:: 2017-05-02

OSTI Identifier:: 1354787

Assignee:: General Electric Company NETL

Patent Number(s):: 9,640,982

Application Number:: 14/533,762

Contract Number:: AC26-07NT42677

Resource Relation:: Patent File Date: 2014 Nov 05

Research Org:: National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA, and Morgantown, WV (United States)

Sponsoring Org:: USDOE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 42 ENGINEERING

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