POWER ELECTRONICS

Unit 1 Thyristor Characteristics and Principles

INTRODUCTION
Power Electronics is a field which combines: 1. Power Engineering: Which deals with the generation, transmission and distribution of electric power. 2. Electronics: It deals with the various semiconductor devices used for control purposes. 3. Control systems: It deals with the control of various parameters of the electric power.

POWER ELECTRONICS
It deals with the study and design of thyristorised power controllers for variety of application like Heat control, Light/Illumination control, AC/DC motor control, Industrial drives, HVDC transmission and vehicle propulsion system.

COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS

Heating Systems, Ventilating systems, Air conditioners, Central refrigeration, Lightening, UPS, elevators and emergency lamps.

DOMESTIC APPLICATIONS

Cooking equipments, lighting, Refrigerators and freezers, computers, TV and radio.

Heating, Personal

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS

Pumps, compressors, blowers and fans, Machine tools, arc furnaces, induction furnaces, lighting control circuits, industrial lasers, induction heating, wielding equipments.

AEROSPACE APPLICATIONS

Space shuttle satellite power systems.

power supply systems, systems, aircraft power

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Battery chargers, power supplies, mobile cell phone battery chargers.

TRANSPORTATION

Traction control of electric vehicles, chargers for electric vehicles, locomotives, street cars, trolley automobile electronics including control

battery electric buses, engine

UTILITY SYSTEMS

High voltage DC transmission, static VAR compensation, Alternative energy source, fuel cells, energy storage systems, induced draft fans and boiler feed water pumps.

POWER SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES

1.
2. 3. 4. 5.

Power Diodes Power Transistors Power MOSFETS IGBTs Thyristors

POWER DIODES
The characteristics of power diodes are: 1. High Mechanical strength and thermal reliability 2. High peak inverse voltage 3. Low forward voltage drop 4. High efficiency 5. Compactness

DIODE TURN-ON & TURN-OFF

Diode is turned ON when its anode is more positive with respect to the cathode.
Diode is turned OFF when anode is less positive with respect to cathode.

DIODE V-I CHARACTERISTICS

I T T 2 1 A K R + Reverse Leakage Current V

T1 T 2

DYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF DIODES

At low frequency and low current, the diode may be assumed to act as a perfect switch and the dynamic characteristics (turn on & turn off characteristics) are not very important. But at high frequency and high current, the dynamic characteristics plays an important role because it increases power loss and gives rise to large voltage spikes which may damage the device if proper protection is not given to the device.

REVERSE RECOVERY CHARACTERISTICS

Current when diode is forward biased is due to net effect of majority and minority carriers. When diode is in forward conduction mode and then its forward current is reduced to zero (by applying reverse voltage) the diode continues to conduct due to minority carriers which remains stored in the p-n junction and in the bulk of semiconductor material. The minority carriers take some time to recombine with opposite charges and to be neutralized. This time is called the reverse recovery time.

IF t1

t rr t2

t 0.25 IRR

IRR

REVERSE RECOVERY TIME

The reverse recovery time depends on the junction temperature, rate of fall of forward current and the magnitude of forward current prior to commutation (turning off).

TYPES OF DIODES
Power diodes can be classified as:
1. 2. 3.

General purpose diodes. High speed (fast recovery) diodes. Schottky diode.

GENERAL PURPOSE DIODES

The diodes have high reverse recovery time of about 25 micro-sec (sec). They are used in low speed (frequency) applications. e.g., line commutated converters, diode rectifiers and converters for a low input frequency upto 1 KHz. Diode ratings cover a very wide range with current ratings less than 1 A to several thousand amps (2000 A) and with voltage ratings from 50 V to 5 kV.

FAST RECOVERY DIODES

The diodes have low recovery time, generally less than 5 s. The major field of applications is in electrical power conversion i.e., in free-wheeling ac-dc and dc-ac converter circuits. Their current ratings is from less than 1 A to hundreds of amperes with voltage ratings from 50 V to about 3 KV. Use of fast recovery diodes are preferable for free-wheeling in SCR circuits because of low recovery loss, lower junction temperature and reduced losses.

SCHOTTKY DIODES
When Schottky diode is forward biased free electrons on n-side gain enough energy to flow into the metal causing forward current. Since the metal does not have any holes there is no charge storage, decreasing the recovery time. Therefore a Schottky diode can switch-off faster than an ordinary p-n junction diode. A Schottky diode has a relatively low forward voltage drop and reverse recovery losses. The leakage current is higher than a p-n junction diode. The maximum allowable voltage is about 100 V. Current ratings vary from about 1 to 300 A. They are mostly used in low voltage and high current dc power supplies. The operating frequency may be as high 100-300 kHz as the device is suitable for high frequency application.

POWER TRANSISTORS
Transistors which have high voltage and high current rating are called power transistors. Power transistors used as switching elements, are operated in saturation region resulting in a low - on state voltage drop. Switching speed of transistors is much higher than the thyristors. And they are extensively used in dc-dc and dc-ac converters with inverse parallel connected diodes to provide bi-directional current flow. However, voltage and current ratings of power transistor are

TYPES OF POWER TRANSISTOR

Power transistors are classified as follows:
1. 2.

3.

4.

Bi-Polar Junction Transistors (BJTs) Metal-Oxide Semi-Conductor Field Effect Transistors (MOSFETs) Insulated Gate Bi-Polar Transistors (IGBTs) Static Induction Transistors (SITs)

DIFFERENT REGIONS OF TRANSISTOR OPERATION

Transistors can be operated in 3 regions i.e., cut-off, active and saturation: In the cut-of region transistor is OFF, both junctions (EB and CB) are reverse biased. In the cut-off state the transistor acts as an open switch between the collector and emitter. In the active region, transistor acts as an amplifier (CB junction is reverse biased and EB junction is forward biased), In saturation region the transistor acts as a closed switch and both the junctions CB and EB are forward biased.

POWER MOSFET
Power MOSFET is a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor. It is a voltage controlled device requiring a small input gate voltage. It has high input impedance. MOSFET is operated in two states viz., ON STATE and OFF STATE. Switching speed of MOSFET is very high. Switching time is of the order of nanoseconds.

N-CHANNEL & P-CHANNEL MOSFET

D G

Metal D

D G
S

Metal D

p-type n substrate n
+

n-type p substrate p
+

G S

S Oxide

Channel

S Oxide

Channel

IGBT
IGBT is a voltage controlled device. It has high input impedance like a MOSFET and low on-state conduction losses like a BJT. They are used in medium power applications like DC and AC motor drives, medium power supplies, solid state relays and contractors, general purpose inverters, UPS, welder equipments, servo controls, robotics, cutting tools, induction heating

IGBT SYMBOL
Collector

n Bufferlayer n epi p n Gate

G n

E Gate

Emitter

FEATURES OF IGBT
IGBT combines the advantages of BJTs and MOSFETs. Features of IGBT are 1. IGBT has high input impedance like MOSFETs. 2. Low ON state conduction power losses like BJTs. 3. There is no secondary breakdown problem like BJTs. 4. By chip design and structure design, the equivalent drain to source resistance is

COMPARISON BETWEEN MOSFET & BJT

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Power MOSFETS have lower switching losses but its on-resistance and conduction losses are more. A BJT has higher switching loss bit lower conduction loss. So at high frequency applications power MOSFET is the obvious choice. But at lower operating frequencies BJT is superior. MOSFET has positive temperature coefficient for resistance. This makes parallel operation of MOSFETs easy. If a MOSFET shares increased current initially, it heats up faster, its resistance increases and this increased resistance causes this current to shift to other devices in parallel. A BJT is a negative temperature coefficient, so current shaving resistors are necessary during parallel operation of BJTs. In MOSFET secondary breakdown does not occur because it have positive temperature coefficient. But BJT exhibits negative temperature coefficient which results in secondary breakdown. Power MOSFETs in higher voltage ratings have more conduction losses. Power MOSFETs have lower ratings compared to BJTs . Power MOSFETs 500V to 140A, BJT 1200V, 800A.