Phase-sequence detector trips circuit breaker by Terry Malarkey otra Semeandictor Products in. Prosi, An Some thresphase line-powered equipment is sensitive tothe direction of rotation of the three phases. For ex- ample if to ofthe connections toa theee-phase motor are inadvertently reversed, the motor wil reverse diec- tion a disaster ifthe motor is used to drive a pump oF the compressor of an ait conditioner. To guard against this failure a low-power circuit an be built from stan- dard complementary-MOS components that will detect the phase inversion and trigger cicuit breaker. More- ver, the cicut, which interfaces direlly with CMOS Topi, can be appended easily to a lineandervoltage oF linesunbalanced detector in the circuit (Fig. 1), the line voltages are st down an Slated by somal wansotness The one waves for phases A, By and C are hallwave-rectiied {nd shaped by the MOOT diode and MPSSI72 ean- Sistor, and shaped again by a CMOS inverter, The te- angular wavetorms are shown a8 A, BY and Cin Fig. 2 The shaped outputs A’, BY, and C’ are now combined with one another in the AND gates Gr, Gz, and Gs, to produce the waveforms A’-C’, A’B’, and BC’ (or X, Y, and Z in Fig, 2). The pulses X, Y, Z appear sequen- tially; this sequence will change to YXZ if, for instance, the B and C phases are interchanged. The X, Y, and Z pulse trains are applied to D-type flip-flops FF and FF in such a way that the Oz output ‘of FF? is high if the sequence is XYZ (ie., if the line Phase sequence is ABC), and Qe is low if the sequence Is YXZ. For the XYZ sequence, an X pulse sets Qs and De high, but then the Y pulse resets Qi and De low. The Z pulse then clocks the low from De to Qe, making Ge high. 2. Operation Line phases A, 8 and G ate rectified and shaped 10 produce wavelorms A’, 8 and C’. Overags of these rectangular waves produce AND-gate outputs AC’, AB, and BC’; for conve: rience these outputs are retered to as X, ¥, and 2. Line-phase se ‘quence ABC generates XYZ; sequence ACB generates YXZ. These pulse trains cause fip-top outputs to signal any phasing error incite av seme wrest? eal sewciaer (rm) Shoo [Ge A 5 ss Sra welt veces {Phase Insurance, Incorrect sequence of Ine phases is detected by fip-ops, which Wigger croul breaker to prevent three-phase motor from running in reverse. Phase sequence AAC makes Q- high, But sequence ACB makes Q: high; either output can be used Io contol pro: fection devices. This phase-reversl detector can be a simple addition to other contol circuitry, as shown here 132