Design Experiment No.

1
Programmable Unijunction Transistor as an SCR Trigger Circuit

I. Objectives:
To Describe the characteristics and operation of Programmable
Unijunction Transistor
To Determine how PUT is used to trigger SCR

II. Discussion:

Programmable Unijunction Transistors (PUT) is a three-terminal thyristors
that are triggered into conduction when the voltage at the anode exceeds the
voltage at the gate. In a programmable unijunction transistor, operating
characteristics such as base-to-base resistance, intrinsic standoff voltage,
valley current, and peak current can be programmed by setting the values of
two external resistors. Applications for programmable unijunction transistors
(PUT) include thyristor triggers, oscillators, pulse, and timing circuits, with
frequencies up to 10 kHz.

A Programmable Unijunction Transistor (PUT) is frequently used to
generate trigger pulses for SCR control applications. A PUT is actually a
thyristor that responds as a UJT that has a variable trigger voltage. This
voltage can be adjusted to desired value by changing two external voltage-
divider resistors. The trigger voltage level can therefore be set or
programmed to respond to a specific value.

III. Resources:
Laptop with Multisim
IV. Procedure:

Figure 1- Programmable Uni-junction Thyristor as SCR trigger circuit for lamp dimmer.

R1 (variable) - 500k/ 5W D1 (PUT) -2n6027
R2 - 16k/1W D2 (SCR) -2n6397
R3 -27k/1W Bridge Rectifier -MDA920A4
C1 - 33nF/ 12v Lamp -120V/100W

1. Construct the circuit of Figure 1.
2. Adjust the variable resistor R1 to 25% and switch ON the supplies. Observe the waveform on the
oscilloscope. (See figure 2of Data and Results)
3. Adjust or make the variable resistor R1 up to 50%. Compare the output of the oscilloscope from
the output waveform of procedure 2(See figure 3of Data and Results). What do you observe?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

4. Then, adjust the variable resistor R1 up to 75% and up to 90% (See Figure 4 and 5 of Data and
Results). What can you observe from the behaviour of the output waveform from 25% to 90%?
Explain your answer.
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

5. Replace the variable resistor R1 with any value lower than 500k (for example 250k).
6. Repeat procedures 2-4. What do you observe?
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________













V. Data and Results:


Figure 2: At 25%.

Figure 3: At 50%.


Figure 4: At 75%.


Figure 5: At 90%.


VI. Discussion of Results:
In this experiment, a programmable unijunction transistor (2N6027) is
used to control the conduction of the SCR (2N6397). The variable resistor
R1= 500k is used to control the firing delay angle. When R1 is at the
minimum value the conduction of the SCR is slower compare to the triggering
level of the PUT to the SCR when the resistance is at maximum. Which
means that the voltage across the capacitor decreases as R1 increases and
the PUT trigger the SCR faster.

VII. Conclusion:
A programmable unijunction transistor can be used to control the
conduction of SCR. The PUT is primarily responsible for triggering pulses
which are developed by a relaxation oscillator. The pulses are applied to
initiate the conduction process. Only one pulse is needed during a
selected alternation to initiate the conduction. This circuit has a
synchronization of a trigger pulse and the alternation that forward biases
the SCR. This is accomplished by energizing the SCR and PUT from the
same ac source. Conduction of the SCR only occurs when the anode-
cathode is forward biased. Control by synchronized pulse triggering is very
precise and has a wide range of adjustment capabilities