Design of Transient Protection Systems

Including Supercapacitor Based Design Approaches for Surge Protectors

Nihal Kularatna,Alistair Steyn Ross,Jayathu Fernando,Sisira James

• Verlag: Elsevier Science
• Jahr: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780128116500
• Thema: Physical Sciences
• Thema: Energy

Design of Transient Protection Systems: Including Supercapacitor Based Design Approaches for Surge Protectors is the only reference to consider surge protection for end-user equipment. This book fills the gap between academia and industry, presenting new product development approaches, such as the supercapacitor assisted surge absorber (SCASA) technique. It discusses protecting gear for modern electronic systems and consumer electronics, while also addressing the chain of design, development, implementation, recent theory and practice of developing transient surge protection systems. In addition, it considers all relevant technical aspects of testing commercial surge protectors, advances in surge protection products, components, and the abilities of commercial supercapacitors.

• Provides unique, patented techniques for transient protectors based on supercapacitors
• Includes recent advances in surge protection
• Links scattered information from within academia and industry with new product development approaches on surge protection for end-user equipment

Chapter 1

Background to Surge Protection

Abstract

Compact ultra-low-DC voltage sources with energy backup, fast transient response, and power and management have become mandatory in powering modern electronics. Uninterruptible power supplies and advanced power conditioning with surge protection have become essential in providing clean and reliable AC power. Modern electronic systems are uniquely vulnerable to power line disturbances because they bring together the high-energy power line and sensitive low-power integrated circuits controlling power semiconductors in the AC-to-AC conversion interfaces as well as the DC–DC converters. The term ‘power conditioning’ is used to describe a broad class of products designed to improve or assure the quality of the energy source connected to sensitive electronic systems. Many of these power disturbances, particularly the transient surges, can be harmful to sensitive electronic equipment with low-voltage DC power supplies. Power disturbances can cause altered or lost data and sometimes equipment damage, which may, in turn, result in loss of production, scheduling conflicts, lost orders, and accounting problems. Protective systems range from those providing minimal protection to those that construct a new power source for critical loads, converting the standard ‘utility-grade power’, which may be adequate for most equipment, into the ‘electronic-grade power’ required by many critical loads. This chapter discusses the protection against transients and surges in power conversion systems required for electronic systems demanding 99.999% or higher reliability. Treatment will be on a low-voltage electronic circuit protection basis only, and hence a discussion on power-engineering aspects is not treated in the book.

Keywords

Advanced power conditioning with surge protection; Surge protection; Clean and reliable AC power; Power conditioning; Disturbance-free power; Electrical disturbances; Utility-grade power; Electronic-grade power; Protection against transients and surges in power conversion systems

1.1 Introduction

At the turn of the century, around 75% of the power generated was processed by power electronics. In the modern scenario of electronics, ultra-large-scale integrated circuits, which progress towards system-on-a-chip (SoC) concepts, are powered by DC power rails as low as 1.2–0.7 V. These two scenarios have made the demands within the power conversion interface complex. Compact ultra-low-DC voltage sources with energy backup, fast transient response, and power management have become mandatory in powering modern electronics. Uninterruptible power supplies and advanced power conditioning with surge protection have become essential in providing clean and reliable AC power.

Modern electronic systems are uniquely vulnerable to power line disturbances because they bring together the high-energy power line and sensitive low-power integrated circuits controlling power semiconductors in the AC-to-AC conversion interfaces as well as the DC–DC converters. The term ‘power conditioning’ is used to describe a broad class of products designed to improve or assure the quality of the energy source connected to sensitive electronic systems.

Utilities realize that different types of customers require different levels of reliability, and make every effort to supply disturbance-free power. However, normal occurrences, most of which are beyond control and are acts of God, make it impossible to provide disturbance-free power 100% of the time. In addition to these external disturbances, sources within buildings, such as switching of heavy inductive loads, poor wiring, overloaded circuits, and inadequate grounding, can cause electrical disturbances. Many of these power disturbances, particularly transient surges, can be harmful to sensitive electronic equipment with low-voltage DC power supplies. Power disturbances can cause altered or lost data and sometimes equipment damage, which may, in turn, result in loss of production, scheduling conflicts, lost orders, and accounting problems.

There are methods and devices available to prevent these disasters from happening. Protective systems range from those providing minimal protection to those that construct a new power source for critical loads, converting the standard ‘utility-grade power’, which may be adequate for most equipment, into the ‘electronic-grade power’ required by many critical loads. This chapter discusses the protection against transients and surges in power conversion systems required for electronic systems demanding 99.999% or higher reliability. Treatment will be on a low-voltage electronic circuit protection basis only, and hence a discussion on power-engineering aspects is not treated in the book.

1.1.1 Development of Semiconductor Technology

After the invention of the transistor in 1947, followed by the development of integrated circuit concepts in the mid-1950s, an exponential growth of integrated circuits occurred following Moore's law [1]. While silicon and GaAs progressed on similar paths, newer compound semiconductor materials, such as SiGe, GaN, and SiC, were also gradually introduced to cater to high-frequency and/or high-temperature and high-voltage requirements of commercial electronic systems.

With integrated circuits gradually progressing towards SoC concepts with a massively increased number of transistors, the feature size of transistors was gradually dropping towards less than 0.1 μm. For example, companies such as Intel were planning to progress into 22 nm semiconductor processing as early as 2012. Currently many digital components, such as processors and memories, are built using CMOS processes smaller than 15 nm. Fig. 1.1A indicates the Moore's law-based general progress of integrated circuits, while the DC rail voltages are dropping towards sub-1.0 V levels. With the equivalent noise levels increasing within these complex ICs, dropping of the logic levels makes the scenario much more complex [2]. Fig. 1.1B indicates the development of processors similar to the Intel family, and their power supply requirements. Fig. 1.1C indicates the scenario in terms of clock speed, power consumption, and, most importantly, the equivalent impedance of the equivalent processor load. With the processor equivalent impedance dropping below 1 milliohm, while the DC rail voltages are dropping towards sub-1 V levels, if a transient surge voltage appears on the power supply, it could create disastrous consequences.

Fig. 1.1 Developments of integrated circuits and processor families: (A) Moore's law driving a signal integrity crisis; (B) development of processors and their power supply requirements; (C) processor speed, power consumption, and equivalent load impedance.

In summary, this situation is cr...