EE-434 Power Electronics
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher
Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology
Topi 23460, Pakistan
hadeed@[Link]
January 21, 2019
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 1 / 25
Overview
1 Electronic switches
Silicon controlled rectifier(SCR)
TRIAC
Gate Turn Off thyristor(GTO)
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 2 / 25
Silicon controlled rectifier(SCR) or thyristor
It is a semi-controlled switch with 2 quadrant operation. It allows
flow of current in positive direction and blocks the positive and
negative voltage.
Three terminal (Anode, cathode and gate) four layer
device(PNPN).Gate is connected to second P.
Turn on by applying a positive gate pulse wrt to cathode. No control
for turn off.
In this category SCR, GTO, MCT and triac are included. Generally
thyristor is referred as SCR.
Can handle large voltage and currents at reasonable frequency.
Anode is usually mounted onto a heat sink or threaded to permit
direct mounting onto an external heat-sink
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 3 / 25
Silicon controlled rectifier(SCR) or thyristor
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 4 / 25
Silicon controlled rectifier(SCR) or thyristor
Figure: Static I-V charecteristics of Thyristor
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 5 / 25
SCR modes of operation
It has three modes of operation
Reverse blocking
Forward blocking
Forward conduction
Figure: Static I-V characteristics of thyristor
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 6 / 25
SCR modes of operation — Reverse Blocking
Cathode is made positive with respect to anode (VAK < 0).
Junction J1 and J3 are reverse biased. J1 should block the entire voltage
because N2 is very thin and is highly doped.
Junction J2 is forward biased.
This is similar like tow diodes connected in series and reverse voltage is
applied.
A small leakage current flows only until the breakdown region is reached.
At the breakdown, large current flows with high voltage thus gives rise to
large dissipation that can exceed the permissible junction temperature
value.
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 7 / 25
SCR modes of operation — Reverse Blocking
Caution
Do not apply a gate pulse when a thyristor is in reverse blocking state
SCR is designed such that in reverse blocking state most of the reverse
voltage drops across J1 .
If a positive gate signal is applied, then J3 also becomes forward biased.
Remember J2 is already forward biased and therefore, it injects holes into
junction J1 .
This increases the reverse leakage current which, increases the junction
heating that further increases the reverse current. This can lead to
thermal runaway of the SCR.
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 8 / 25
SCR modes of operation — Forward Blocking and
conduction
Anode is made positive with respect to cathode (VAK > 0).
Junction J1 and J3 are forward biased.
Junction J2 is reverse biased so entire VAK appears across J2 .
J2 limits forward current to the value of forward leakage current (several
mA).
With forward biased voltage, SCR can be conducted using any techniques
listed below.
Exceeding the forward breakover voltage VBO
Gate triggering
dv/dt turn on
Irradiation of gate-cathode junction
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 9 / 25
Forward Conduction— Exceeding VBO
If gate current is zero and applied voltage(VAK ) exceeds further than VBO ,
then J2 experiences avalanche breakdown. Hence, VBO is called forward
breakover voltage.
The characteristic curve (6) shift from a high voltage low current region to
low voltage high current region.
In this case the current is controlled only by the external impedance of the
circuit.
Forward voltage drop is usually between 1-1.5V.
Note that the current path is shown in dotted line pattern. It is because,
with the decrease in voltage current increases i.e., it is acting like a
negative resistance and therefore it is an unstable region.
If the anode voltage is reduced then the thyristor will continue to stay on
because of the absence of J2 .
Thyristor will only turn off if the forward current drops below a certain
value. The value of that current is called holding current or sustaining
current.
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 10 / 25
Forward Conduction— Gate triggering
This is the most common method of firing a thyristor.
A suitable positive positive voltage is applied at gate to cathode terminals.
A layer at the gate is flooded by electrons from the cathode and it looses
its identity as a layer.
Looking onto Fig.6, as the gate current increases, the voltage at which the
device turn on also decreases. This is because the gate current reduces the
depletion layer around J2 .
Thyristor is equivalent as a conducting diode in this state.
For a given forward voltage there is a minimum gate current at which a
thyristor turns on. Usually it is between few milliamperes to several
milliamperes.
Once a thyristor is turned on, gate current is no longer required therefore,
a pulse is usually applied on the gate.
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 11 / 25
Forward Conduction— Gate triggering
If the gate pulse is removed before the forward current reaches a value
called latching current, the thyristor will turn off again.
Gate pulse should be wide enough so that current exceeds latching current.
After this the gate has no control on the SCR. Latching current is higher
than the holding current.
It is usually three times the holding current if not specified in the data
sheet.
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 12 / 25
Forward Conduction— dv/dt turn on
A thyristor can be turned off by a rapid rate of increase of forward anode
to cathode voltage in the absence or presence of gate signal.
A rapidly rising anode voltage produces transient gate current due to
junction capacitances. This current may be sufficient to turn on a
thyristor.
This type is usually not used.
Such transients may occur because of other associated equipment as well,
therefore it is ensured that the dv/dt across the thyristor s less the value
at which it is turned on.
Typical dv/dt rating to avoid unwanted turn on are in range of
10-200v/ms.
The value of dv/dt can be increased by using low resistor.
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 13 / 25
Forward Conduction— Irradiation of Gate cathode junction
A thyristor can be turned on by a beam of light directed at the gate to
cathode junction.
Mostly used in HVDC systems.
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 14 / 25
SCR — Two transistor analogy
An SCR can be dissected into a form where it resembles like an NPN and
PNP transistor as shown below.
We know that
IC = αIE + ICBO (1)
where, ICBO is the leakage current of CBJ of Q1 and IE = IA
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 15 / 25
SCR — Two transistor analogy
For Q1 , IE = IA
IC 1 = α1 IA + ICBO1 (2)
For Q2 ,IE = IK ,
IC 2 = α2 IK + ICBO2 (3)
Now, IE = IC + IB , also, IB1 = IC 2 , therefore adding (7) and (3)
IA = IC 1 + IC 2 = α1 IA + ICBO1 + α2 IK + ICBO2 (4)
For the bottom transistor, IK = IB2 + IC 2 . Now for some finite gate
current IG ,
IB2 = IG + IC 1 (5)
IK = IC 1 + IG + IC 2 = IA + IG (6)
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 16 / 25
SCR — Two transistor analogy
Substituting (6) in (4),
α2 IG + ICBO1 + ICBO2
IA = (7)
1 − (α1 + α2 )
This presents, anode current as a function of gate current, leakage current
and common mode current gain.
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 17 / 25
The thyristor datasheet
Important parameters in choosing an SCR are
Average forward current
Reverse blcoking voltage
Off state current
dv/dt and di/dt during turn on and off for snubber design
Device turn off time to check the frequency
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 18 / 25
The thyristor datasheet MCC95-14io1B
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 19 / 25
The thyristor datasheet MCC95-14io1B
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 20 / 25
The thyristor datasheet MCC95-14io1B
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 21 / 25
The thyristor datasheet
Important parameters in choosing an SCR are
Average forward current
Reverse blocking voltage
Off state current
dv/dt and di/dt during turn on and off for snubber design
Device turn off time to check the frequency
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 22 / 25
TRIAC
For AC operation, a traditional SCR cannot be used.
One solution is to use two SCRs in anti-parallel connection.
This can also be done with a device called TRIAC (1964,GE).
It is a bidirectional device with a common gate.
Can be turned on by Making MT2 > MT1 and applying positive gate
current.
Making MT1 > MT2 and applying negative gate current.
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 23 / 25
TRIAC
Figure shows the characteristics of a TRIAC.
Used in fan regulators.
TRIAC has less time to recover the blocking power compared to SCR. This
means it has a tendency to misfire.
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 24 / 25
GTO
It can be turned off by negative gate current.
There is structural difference in terms of layer thickness and manipulation.
(More can be studied in the reference book)
Engr. Dr. Hadeed Ahmed Sher (FEE, GIKI) Week 02 Resources January 21, 2019 25 / 25
