Photothyristors are activated by light.

The advantage of photothyristors is their insensitivity to

electrical signals, which can cause faulty operation in electrically noisy environments. A lighttriggered thyristor (LTT) has an optically sensitive region in its gate, into which electromagnetic
radiation (usually infrared) is coupled by an optical fiber. Since no electronic boards need to be
provided at the potential of the thyristor in order to trigger it, light-triggered thyristors can be an
advantage in high-voltage applications such as HVDC. Light-triggered thyristors are available with
in-built over-voltage (VBO) protection, which triggers the thyristor when the forward voltage across it
becomes too high; they have also been made with in-built forward recovery protection, but not
commercially. Despite the simplification they can bring to the electronics of an HVDC valve, lighttriggered thyristors may still require some simple monitoring electronics and are only available from
a few manufacturers.