Semiconductor fuses are an energy limiting fuse using specially shaped silver elements in a

silicon sand environment. Because of their energy limiting characteristics, they are able to protect
some semiconductor devices from excess energy let through under fault current conditions. The
energy limiting characteristic of semiconductor fuses is also useful for reducing the amount of
damage done by an arcing fault. - effectively the fault current is reduced.
In the case of a VFD, there are two power semiconductor technologies used, the bridge rectifier
and the output stage.
The bridge rectifier comprises power rectifiers that are connected directly to the supply and drive
a capacitor bank, sometimes directly and sometimes via inductors. The nature of the design of
the VFD means that the rectifier is less likely to be damaged by a short circuit on the output or in
the motor. The rectifier is most likely to be damaged by a voltage surge or transient on the input.
Because of the capacitive load on the rectifier, even a relatively low magnitude fast impulse can
result in a high charging current trough the recitifers into the capacitors and this could damage
them. The use of AC line reactors or DC bus chokes reduces the vulnerability of the rectifiers to
such transients. The semiconductor fuses could be used on the input to provide some protection
to the rectifiers but this is rarely done.
The charged capacitors are connected to a three phase inverter bridge, usually comprising IGBTs
in modern designs. The output of the inverter is then connected via a cable to the motor. Modern
IGBTs are very rugged and able to be controlled. If an overload occurs, it is generally possible to
shut the devices OFF before they are damaged. The Capacitors however, do store up a large
amount of energy and if any fault occurs, the energy is not limited, even if the AC supply is
removed, until the capacitors are discharged. If there is an insulation breakdown, or an IGBT fails,
then the resulting damage can be very severe and difficult to repair. The use of energy limiting
fuses between the Capacitor bank and the output inverter will drastically reduce the damage, but
will not protect the output transistors. The output devices are often damaged, not by overload
currents, but by peak voltages due to arcing, switching or similar. Fuses will not prevent this.
As a rule, one or preferable two semiconductor fuses are used in the DC bus between the
capacitors and the output bridge, but rarely used elsewhere.
Semiconductor fuses are not made of semiconductore, rather they are designed to protect power
semiconductor components. The semiconductor fuse uses silver elements with tight dimensional
control over the elements so that they limit the energy flow under short circuit conditions. They
are commonly known as fast fuses, or energy limiting fuses. A standard HRC fuse with copper
elements will clear in half a cycle, but the fault energy is dependant on the fault current capacity
of the supply. In the case of the energy limiting fuse, it will clear in less than half a cycle with the
time to clear being influenced by the fault current.