SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING & PHYSICS

EE325: Power Electronics and Drives

GROUP NAMES
Name: ID #:
James Malasa s11102887
Sukaria William s11101819

Experiment 1: Diode and Thyristors

Objective:
The objective of this experiment is to familiarize students to the characteristics of thyristors
and diodes using Matlab, Simulink.

Introduction:
Diodes
Diodes are electronic device or components that has two terminals and can allow flow of
current in only one direction. This means there is less resistance in this direction of flow of
current. This also means that in the other direction there is more resistance thus preventing
current to flow. It can be also known as a semiconductor switch. The diode is made up of a
semiconductor material like silicon. Pure silicon does not have any free electron, but the silicon
used in the diode is not pure therefore, one part is doped with N type impurity and the other
with P type impurity. This mean that at the N side there are free electrons and at the P side
there is free holes or position for the electrons. The P side is slightly negatively charged while
the N side is slightly positively charged. This causes a natural barrier for the flow of electrons.
The diode can operate in a forward and a reverse biased operation. The reverse biased is when
electricity or current is passed to the P side of the diode the width of the depletion region
depletes causing current to not pass through the diode. The forward biased is when electricity
or current is passed to the N side of the diode the electron are passed away to the p side by the
negative terminal which means that the diode allows the current to flow.

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Thyristors
Thyristors are electrical devices or components with four layers and are semiconductor
rectifiers which mean a trigger signal in the third electrode allows current to pass between two
electrodes [2]. A thyristor as a rule has three terminals, a cathode, anode and an entryway or
gate. Thyristors are essentially intended to intensify and redress the electrical flows that stream
in powerful electronic gadgets. A thyristors four layer comprises of a progression of P and N
material type that interface with the cathode, anode and a rationale entryway (gate). When a
current is applied to the gate the thyristor permits an intensified current stream structure anode
to cathode. Despite the fact that thyristors can just send flows (current) a single way, they have
three distinctive working modes: switch obstruction, forward blocking and forward direct.
In this lab the characteristics of a diode and a thyristor will be studied using Simulink in Matlab.
The plots for the different parameters of the experiment will be generated and analyzed.

Equipment’s:
1. PC
2. Matlab software

Methodology:
Part 1
The first part of this experiment is to use Simulink in MatLab and construct the given circuit
and obtain the plots for load voltage, load current VRMS, IRMS, Vload, Iload. Forward voltage is
1.7V and resistance is 1mohms.

Fig 1. Diode Circuit.

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Part 2
The second part of this experiment is to use Simulink in MatLab and construct the given circuit
and obtain the plots for Vs and VAK. Also study the output when the values of R is either
decreasing or increasing.

Fig 2. Thyristor Circuit.

Results:
Part 1
The first given circuit constructed using Visio.

Fig 3: The Diode circuit 1 drawn using Visio

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Simulated plots for .Forward diode voltage is 1.7 and
resistance is 1mohms.

Fig 4: Shows the plots for the RMS Voltage and Current.

Fig 5: Shows the plots for the source voltage, load current and load voltage.

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Part 2
Part 2 circuit drawn using Visio.

Fig 6: The thyristor circuit 2 drawn using Visio.

1. Simulated plot for Vs and VAK for when the resistance R is 60Ω.

Fig 7: Shows the plots for the source voltage and Vak when R equals 60Ω.

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 2. Simulated plot for Vs and VAK for when the resistance R is 10 Ω.

Fig 8: Shows the plots for the source voltage and Vak when R equals 10Ω.

Discussion
This lab exercise was based on implementing circuits in Matlab Simulink which are consisted
of Diodes and Thyristor and then analysing the characteristics of these two power semi-
conductor switches. In part 1, a single-phase diode rectifier bridge was constructed and
simulated on Simulink. For this configuration, local grid supply values (Vs) with diode forward
voltage and resistance of 1.7 V and 1mΩ respectively were used. According to the circuit
connection, two diodes are always conducting during the same interval in order to provide a
closed loop path for the current. Diode 1 and 2 conducts when the source voltage (Vs) is
positive while Diode 3 and 4 conducts when the source voltage (Vs) is negative. The operations
of the diodes are graphically illustrated by the waveforms obtained during the Simulink
simulation in the results section. Furthermore, the load was a resistive load, thus the load
current will have same ripple waveform as the load voltage [3].
For part 2, a thyristor was introduced in simple circuit connection which includes a resistor and
source voltage (Vs). By varying the value of resistance above 50Ω and blow 30Ω we were able
to analyse the behaviour of the Thyristor. Thyristor applications are widely used for power
control. For the simple circuit, control was achieved over the instant of current conduction
during the positive half cycle of the source voltage (Vs). When the source voltage goes
negative, the thyristor will set its current to zero [4]. This was illustrated by the results of output
waveform for voltage source (Vs) and the spike to 1.7V in Vak indicating switching action of
the Thyristor. Regarding variations of resistance value, there is an increase in peak value of the
input source voltage (Vs) when resistance is increased compared to when it is decreased.

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Conclusion
The analysis of power electronic components such as, diodes and thyristor can be carried out
easily and accurately with the help of Matlab Simulink. This software helps student have
better understanding on the characteristic of these components and how their important in the
building blocks of Power electronics systems used in electric utilities today.

References
[1] Schubert, E.F., Gessmann, T. and Kim, J.K., 2000. Light emitting diodes. Kirk‐Othmer
Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology.

[2] Nemati, F., Robins, S.T. and Gupta, R.N., Micron Technology Inc, 2013. Thyristors. U.S. Patent
8,519,431.

[3] M. Tawfeeq, "Single-phase full-wave uncontrolled rectifiers", Philadelphia.edu.jo, 2014. [Online].

Available: http://www.philadelphia.edu.jo/academics/mlazim/uploads/PE%20Lecture%20No.4.pdf.
[Accessed: 12- Aug- 2020].
[4] N. Mohan, T. Undeland and W. Robbins, Power electronics, 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley &
Sons, 2003.

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Appendix A:
Simulink diagram of the constructed circuit.