ELECTRICAL POWER SWITCHING WITH EFFICIENT SWITCH PROTECTION

摘要

A basic idea of the invention is to introduce a transmission delay line (25) between the switch (20) and the power output side of a power switching system so that any sparking of the load (40) is hidden from the switch (20) by the time delay of the transmission line (25). This makes it possible to detect the load spark and actively protect the switch, typically by turning the switch off, before it actually knows that there has been a load fault spark. Alternatively, the delay of the transmission line is long enough so that the switch has already been turned off in normal pulse operation before the load fault current reaches the switch. Either way, the switch will be turned off under normal current flow and will not be subject to destructive over-current or over-voltage conditions.