Course: Electronics – for Complete Beginners

Section 6: Solid State Devices

Lecture 6: Thyristor Devices

Thyristor Devices
Thyristors are a broad classification of
semiconductor devices having four
alternating N-P-N-P layers. These include
the silicon controlled rectifier (SCR), the
TRIAC, the silicon controlled switch (SCS),
the AC diode (DIAC), and variations on
these devices.
William Shockley proposed the four-layer
diode thyristor in 1950, but a practical
device was not developed until years later at
General Electric. SCRs are now available to
handle power levels from watts to
megawatts. Small scale devices are
packaged like small-signal transistors, and
are capable of switching 100’s of milliamps
at near 100 VAC. The largest packaged
devices are almost 7-inches (172mm) in
diameter, switching 5600 amps at 10,000
VAC.
 Thyristors are most often found useful for
electrical power control applications.
Silicon Controlled Rectifiers
The most prominent member of the
thyristor family is the silicon controlled
rectifier (SCR). The SCR is a three junction
semiconductor device which behaves like a
triggered diode.

Compound connected transistor are

functionally analogous an SCR. A positive
trigger signal applied between the gate and
cathode terminals causes the NPN transistor
to conduct. The collector of the conducting
NPN transistor then turns on, providing base
current for the PNP transistor, causing it to
conduct, connecting the base of the NPN
transistor to V+ through the resistor. That
latches the NPN in the conducting condition,
regardless of the presence or absence of a
gate signal.
Once the SCR is turned on, it remains in
the “on” condition for as long as there is a
positive voltage on its anode. Since SCRs
are most often used with AC power,
conduction ceases at the end of the sine
wave’s positive half-cycle.
Applications for the SCR tend to be
mostly proletarian. This example shows a
motor speed control scheme used in many
handyman-class electric drills.
Most such drills are powered by series-
wound universal (AC/DC) electric motors.
These motors generate a back-emf that is
proportional to the motor speed, so the
motor’s effective applied voltage equals the
true applied voltage less the back-emf. Any
increase in motor loading tends to reduce the
speed and the back-emf, thus increasing the
effective applied voltage, which tends to
cause motor to speed up. So the motor is
somewhat self-regulating in terms of RPMs.
The simple circuit shown controls the
speed of the electric drill electronically by
using a phase-delayed switching technique.
An SCR is used as the control element,
feeding half-wave power to the motor. The
speed-adjusting network, consisting of the
resistor, potentiometer and diode, controls
the trigger point of the SCR during the
positive half-cycle.
 During the off half-cycles, the back-emf of
the motor is, in effect, sensed by the SCR
and used to provide automatic adjustment of
the next gating pulse, resulting in automatic
speed regulation.
The speed-adjusting network, with the
potentiometer incorporated into the drill’s
trigger switch, provides only 90° of phase
adjustment, so every motor pulse has a
duration of at least the other 90° of the 180°
half-cycle, ensuring an acceptable level of
torque. At low speeds, the circuit goes into a
high-torque skip-cycling mode, in which
power pulses are provided intermittently, as
suited to motor loading conditions.
TRIACs and DIACs
The second most important thyristor
device is the bidirectional triode thyristor,
or TRIAC. The triac acts like a pair of SCRs
wired in inverse parallel and controlled via a
single gate terminal. It can conduct current
in either direction between its MT1 and
MT2 terminals and can thus be used to
directly control AC power.
Triacs can be triggered by either positive
or negative gate currents, irrespective of the

polarity of the MT2 current. The trigger

current sensitivity is greatest, however,
when the MT2 and gate currents are both of
the same polarity — both positive, or both
negative — and is usually about half as great
when they are of opposite polarity.
Low-power triacs are used in light
dimmers, speed controls for electric fans and
other electric motors, and in the modern
computerized control circuits of many
household appliances.
Light dimmers work with incandescent
lamps and some of the newer compact
fluorescent and LED replacement bulbs.
They are simple circuits which adjust power
to the bulb by phase angle proportioning, a
method of delaying the turn-on point for the
triac during each half-cycle. For example,
delaying the turn-on by 45° provides
approximately 75% of the AC power to the
lamps.

The key to this simple scheme is the bi-

directional breakdown diode, or DIAC in the
gate circuit. The diac conducts only after its
breakover voltage has been exceeded, which
in this case is about 32-volts.
During each half-cycle of the line voltage,
the capacitor alternately charges positively
and negatively at a rate determined by the
setting of the potentiometer. When the
voltage on the capacitor reaches the
breakover voltage, the diac conducts,
providing gate current to trigger the triac.
The triac then latches on for the rest of that
half-cycle, turning off at the next zero-
crossing.
The triac gate current also partially
discharges the capacitor. When the voltage
on the capacitor drops below the diac’s
output voltage, about 5V, the diac returns to
its blocking state, ready for the next half-
cycle.
Since the 32V breakover voltage is about
11° into a 180° half-cycle, the maximum
power available to the lamps at the full-on
setting is about 94%.
We once provided speed control modules
for a manufacturer of potter’s wheels. The
circuit is very similar to a common triac
light dimmer ...

In this case, the output drives a permanent-

magnet DC motor by means of a full-wave
bridge rectifier. The potter’s speed
regulating mechanism was a foot pedal
linked to a linear potentiometer, with
trimming potentiometers included to
establish its “off” and “full speed” limits.
Motors of this type tend to have slow-
speed “cogging” problems when driven by
phase-proportioning schemes, so a
compensating anticipatory network is also
provided to deal with that issue so as to
provide for very smooth slow rotational
speeds — a “must” for potters’ wheels.
 Optical Couplers
When the triggering source is sensitive DC
circuitry, such as process controllers or
microcontrollers, optical couplers are
frequently used to isolate the low-level DC
system from the high-voltage AC load. This
sort of isolation is usually incorporated into
solid state relays.
An example of that is an interface that our
company has incorporated into many
products over the years …

The MOC3041 optical coupler consists of

a LED encapsulated with a triac having a
photosensitive gate. When the light comes
on, the embedded triac switches on, which
provides gate current for the higher powered
2N6073A triac.
In our case, the load is usually a definite
purpose contactor (DPC), but the load could
just as well be lighting, a motor, or anything
else. Our industrial process control systems
also typically provided a 24VDC control
signal, but the input could just well be a
logic level output from a microcontroller.
SCSs and GTOs
The silicon controlled switch, or SCS, is
essentially a SCR with a gate turn-off
feature.
 The device has two gate terminals, a
“cathode gate” and an “anode gate”. As is
fairly easy to see on the equivalent circuit
diagram, a positive pulse on the AG terminal
momentarily eliminates the emitter-base
current from the PNP section, causing the
device to turn off.
On the other hand, a negative pulse to that
terminal will cause the device to turn on,
which raises the question, “Then why have
the cathode gate?”
The answer is the gate turn-off,
or GTO, thyristor, which is
essentially a SCS without the CG
terminal, except that the logic is
reversed; a positive pulse on the
gate terminal turns it on, and a negative
pulse turns it off.
The advantages of the GTO include the
elimination of the anode gate, and the fact
that the turn-on and turn-off times are fast,
and equal … obtained at the expense of gate
current, which is a little higher than what’s
required by the SCS.
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All in all, there are at least fifteen kinds of
thyristor devices. SCRs and TRIACs
predominate to the extent that you will
probably never encounter any of the other
types, some of which — like the once-
promising unijunction transistor, or UJT —
are now classified as obsolete and not
recommended for new designs.
Again; thyristors are used mainly in AC
power control applications — applications
which can involve very high voltages and
currents. Electronics and electrical
engineering are related, but different fields.
If by happenstance you wind up working in
the electrical field, you’ll probably become a
lot more interested in learning more about
these sorts of devices.
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 Moving on, let’s see what solid state
photoconductive devices are like, and how
they work.
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