THYRISTOR

Thyristor is a four-layered, three terminal semiconductor device, with each layer consisting of
alternatively N-type or P-type material.

Ex: P-N-P-N

The operation of a thyristor can be understood in terms of a pair of tightly coupled bipolar
junction transistors, arranged to cause a self latching action

 Thyristor can produce half wave and full wave rectification just like rectifier

 Using a thyristor is better than diode for rectification

 Useful for controlling power circuits

 Simple to use, easy to build and cheap

 The three teminals of a thyristor is known as Anode, Cathode and Gate.

Reasons for using Silicon for Thyristors

 Able t handle the voltage and curents required for high power applications

 Has good thermal properties

 Well established and is widely used for variety of semiconductor electronices

 Cheap and easy to use

Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR)

• Silicon Controlled Rectifier is developed by Moll, Tanenbuam, Goldey and Holonyak of

Bell Laboratories in1956

• The name “silicon controlled rectifier” is General Electric’s trade name for a type of
thyristor

• The SCR consists of four layers of semiconductors, which form NPNP of PNPN structures
have three P-N junctions

• The anode therminal of an SCR is connected to the p-tpe material of a PNPN structure,
and the cathode terminal is connected to the n-type material nearest the cathode

• An SCR consists of four layers of alternating p-type and n-type semiconductor materials
 • Silicon is used as the intrinsic semiconductor, to which the proper dopants are added

• The junctions are either diffused or alloyed (alloy is a mixed semiconductor or a mixed
metal)

Operation mode of a SCR

• Reverse blocking mode – voltage is applied in the direction that would be blocked by a
diode

• Forward blocking mode – voltage is applied in the direction that would cause a diode to
construct, but the thyristor has not been triggerd into conduction

• Forward conducting mode – the thyristor has been triggered into conduction and will
remain conducting until the forward current drops below a threshold value known as
the “holding current”

 Reverse Blocking Mode

• In this mode, the SCR is reversed biased by connecting its Anode terminal to negative
end of the battery and by providing its Cathode terminal with a positive voltage. This
leads to the reverse biasing of the junctions J1 and J3, which in turn prohibits the flow of
current through the device, in spite of the fact that the junction J2 will be identical to
that of a typical diode as it exhibits both the flow of reverse saturation current as well as
the reveres break-down phenomenon

 Forward Blocking Mode

• Here a positive bias is applied to the SCR by connecting its Anode to the positive of the
battery and by shorting the SCR cathode to the battery’s negative terminal. Under this
condition, the junctions J1 and J3 gets forward biased while J2 will be reverse biased
which allows only a minute amount of current flow through the device

 Forward Conduction Mode

SCR can be made to conduct either by

 Increasing the positive voltage applied between the Anode and Cathode terminals by
Break-Over Voltage VB

 Applying positive voltage to its terminal

In the first case, the increase in the applied bias causes the initially reverse biased junction J2 to
break-down at the point corresponding to Forward Break-Over Voltage, VB. This results in the
sudden increase in the flowing through SCR, although the gate terminal of SCR remains
unbiased

Applications of SCR

• Battery-charging regulator • Over voltage protection

• Temperature controller citcuit • Pulse circuit

• Emergency-lighting system • Zero voltage switch

• Power control • AC power control with Solid relays

• Switching • TRIAC zero point switch application

How a Thyristor latches on

1) With no current flowing into the gate, the thyristor is switched off and no current flows
between the anode and cathode

2) When a current flows into the gate, it effectively flows into the base (input) of upper (p-
n-p) transistor, turning it on

3) Once the lower transistor is switched on, current can flow through it and into the base
(input) of the upper (p-n-p) transistor, turning that on as well.

4) Once both transistors are turned on completely (saturated), current can flow and all the
way through both of them –through the entire thyristor from the anode to the cathode

5) Since the two transistors keep one another switched on, the thyristor stays on- “latches”
– even if the gate current is removed

Several applications of thyristor onboard ships

• Motor starter (softer starter)

• Varying motor speed a.k.a Variable Frequenct Drive (VFD)

• Converter Circuit

• Inverter Circuit
Some characteristics of SCR applied in soft starter

 Voltage output varies according to the desire values but frequency remains the same.

 Use as voltage limiter in both positive and negative cycle of AC supply

 Used as a starting method of AC motor to reduce starting current and bypass after
achieving rated space (e.g induction motor)

SILICON-CONTROLLED SWITCH
 It is a four-layer pnpn device.

 Its basic construction is the same with the SCR with the addition of the second gate lead.

 Anode, cathode, an anode gate, and a cathode gate.

ANODE GATE

 The higher the anode gate current, the lower the required anode-to-cathode voltage to
turn the device on.

 Used to turn the device either on or off

 To turn on the device, a negative pulse must be applied to the anode gate terminal,
while a positive pulse is required to turn off the device.

 A negative pulse at the anode gate will forward-bias the base-to-emitter junction of Q1,
turning it on. The resulting heavy collector current IC1, will turn on Q2, resulting in a
regenerated action and the on state for the SCS device.

 A positive pulse at the anode gate will reverse-bias the base-to-emitter junction of Q1,
turning it off, resulting in the open circuit “off” state of the device.

The required turn-on gate current at either terminal is affected by many factors

 Operating temperature

 Anode-to-cathode voltage

 Load placement
Advantages of SCS than SCR

 reduced turn-off time, typically within the range 1 to 10µs for the SCS and 5 to 30µs for
the SCR.

 Increased control and triggering sensitivity

 A more predictable firing situation

GATE TURN-OFF SWITCH

 Like an SCR, is a four layer, three junction semiconductor device with three external
terminals, namely, the anode, the cathode and the gate.

 The main advantage of the GTO over the SCR or The main advantage of the GTO over
the SCR or SCS is that it can be turned on or off by applying the proper pulse to the
cathode gate (without the anode gate and associated circuitry required for the SCS).

 Because of its turn-off capability, there is an increase in the magnitude of the required
gate current for triggering.

 Another distinct advantage of GTO is its improved switching characteristics.

 The turn-on time is similar to that of an SCR (typically 1 us), but the turn-off time of
about the same duration ( 1 us) is much smaller than the same duration ( 1 us) is much
smaller than the typical turn-off time of an SCR (5 to 30 us).

 The fact that the turn-off time is similar to the turn-on time rather than considerably
larger permits the use of this device in high speed applications.

APPLICATIONS OF GATE-TURN-OFF SWITCH

 SAWTOOTH GENERATOR
 LIGHT-ACTIVATED SCR
 AND/OR CIRCUIT
 LATCHING RELAY
Shockley Diode
What Is Shockley Diode?

 Also called PNPN diode.

 Named from the inventor “William Bradford Shockley”.

 A two terminal and four layer semiconductor switching diode.

 Primarily used for switching applications.

 Operates in two states either ON or OFF. Thus, it is used as switching device.

 It is a two terminal device that’s why it is categorized as diodes.

 Conducts when it is forward biased and stops conducting when it is in reverse biased.

 Most useful in making other kinds of thyristor such as DIAC, TRIAC and SCR.

Symbol and Structure of Shockley Diode

 Shockley diode is formed by sandwiching four layers of semiconductor. Three junctions

are formed due to the merging of four layers together.
 The construction of Shockley diode can be understood by two transistors T1 and T2
connected together.

Common application of Shockley

a.) Trigger Switch

-When the circuit energized, the voltage across the capacitor will begin to change
toward the supply voltage.

b.) Relaxation Oscillator Circuit

- This circuit uses a Shockley diode, that is connected across the power supply battery
and capacitor.
The Shockley diode comprises of three junctions namely

 J1,
 J2
 J3.

The diode consists of two operating modes which operates on the lower line with small
current and a voltage less than break over voltage.

 conducting modes
 non-conducting modes

GATE TURN-OFF THYRISTOR (GTO)

• a special type of thyristor, which is a high-power semiconductor device
• is a three terminal, bipolar (current controlled minority carrier) semiconductor switching
device
• the terminals are anode, cathode and gate
• useful particularly within variable speed motor drives, high power inverters, etc.
• used in virtually all DC to AC and DC to DC high voltage conversion units
• These are capable not only to turn ON the main current with a gate drive circuit, but
also to turn it OFF.
GTO STRUCTURE

 +Vc Gate pulse is applied to turn it ON

 -Vc Gate pulse is applied to turn it OFF
 The turning ON of GTO is not as reliable as SCR’s
 GTO is ten times faster than SCR when turning ON
 For reliable turning OFF process, connect the GTO in parallel

GTO CHARACTERISTICS
 During the turn ON, GTO is similar to thyristor in its operates.So the first quadrant
characteristics are similar to the thyristor. When the anode is made positive with
respect to cathode, the device operates in forward blocking mode. By the application of
positive gate signal triggers the GTO into conduction state.

 The GTO can be turned OFF by the application of reverse gate current which can be
either step or ramp drive. The GTO can be turned OFF without reversing anode voltage.
The dashed line in the figure shows i-v trajectory during the turn OFF for an inductive
load. It should be noted that during the turn OFF, GTO can block a rated forward voltage
only.

REVERSE BIAS
1. Symmetrical GTO Thyristors (S-GTO)
 capable of blocking reverse voltage
 application for S-GTO thyristors is in current source inverter
2. Asymmetrical GTO Thyristors (A-GTO)
 incapable of blocking reverse voltage
 application for A-GTO are voltage source inverters and DC traction choppers
SCR vs GTO

APPLICATIONS OF GTO
• AC drives
• DC drives or DC choppers
• AC stabilizing power supplies
• DC circuit breakers
• Induction heating
• And other low power applications