OPTIMUM SNUBBERS FOR POWER SEMICONDUCTORS WILLIAM MeMURRAY, Senior Member 1 EE Corporate Research and Development General Electric Co., Schenectady, N.Y. Abstract Te As generally necessary to comect an ReC snubber across a power rectifier of thyristor to absorb the energy associated vith the recovery Current of the davice and Lintt the resulting voltage spike and rate of rise dv/dt. Fore given snubber capacitance, it 1s shova that there {san optigon damping Fesistance which miaiaizes che peak voltage Duta lover resistance is ree quired to ainimize the average dv/dt to the perk. Design procedures are derived for selecting the capacitance and optiua Tesistance to inte the peak voltage or dv/4t to specified values. The device recovery current {+ trapped in eircute inductance and £es energy mrt be dissipated, while the snubber produece additional losses’ at the price of performing its Liniting function. oe Lone of Recove ‘Volesge Transient of the recovery voltage tr: tient appearing aerose « seniconiuctor fecetfier diode OF thyristor device, « pover converter € usually be reduced fo an equivalent cireutt of the fore shovn in Fig. 1. 4 voltage £, which can de assuned steady throughout the transient, i¢ applied to a series R-C-L cirevit. The voltage edeross the snobber resistance and capacitance inserles appears as recovery voltage on the semiconductor device, The initial capacitor voltage is sero, but an initial current I fe For ansiysis present in the Cizeute. This is the peck reverse Pecovery wrrent in the device, which becomes Inthe inductasce L ani 4s forced to transfer to the RoC path when the device Blocks. Blocking is assuned £0 oceur ina shore interval, which ts certainly che case for snup-olf diodes and a reasonable approxination for most other devices, Tine zero of the tranrient is the stant wien the device blocks, The initial valve of e ts IR. An ideal recovery transient is shown ie rge 2 The peak recovery current I for 4 given device is'a funceion of temperature, the previous forvard current before applicetion of the commu: ‘tating voltage £, and the race di/ét vhich te jal to E/L, Typical or maxima valves of re- covery current (or the recovered charge, from hich the curreat can easily be calculated) are included in many device specifications ss fune= elons of these parsneters [i]. ‘The general Laplace transforms for the current {and the voleage © are + @ ‘The general solutions of these equations will nov be presented. The parameters a, and of are defined a follows. Un-danped natural frequency (radians/see): o © For designing the anubber circuit, it is Sonventent co express the equations in’ terms of the following normalized parameters. x 1 sig tee o Repriwed from 1EEE Conference Record of Sixth Annual Meeting of Industry and Appleton: Group, pp. 885-893, 1971Note ene o 2, Zar, sata ‘ xin 2)" Final energy in copsetens 2 Gane Uadex~damped condition, (<1 This is the cate of wort practical tapor~ tance, since St includes the optinum design of the stobber circule, The angular frequensy of the dtaped oscillation te piven by The inverse exantfors of (2) yielés oy a © = RDV(e0s ce - B ein ot) 0 as) =e o cetthieet as che slope 1s positive and the recovery voltage rises toa peak at a tioe ty which cen be ode tained by eeeting (10) equal to sere, yielding © - mst seen an em Se ke @ a ee - ey Yine 7 as) 1 3 = BE + OE THQ) Uetiateton of cas) ‘inctlon) shawl ecg 9 ao wel ee, adi-¢ an here the angle 18 in che first or setood quad- Fant, depending upon whether the function FG") 4s positive or negative respectively. Subsetcuting che value of t, from (21) inte (9), the value E, Of the peak recovery voltage fs obtained : sed ct fe - ms BEST © ¥ ae of Tae normalized peak voltage can be reduced to function of {and x, defined a¢ pts x) ZZ ew {- tas Boas om (phy ol PG 20 Fig, 2 dealized Recovery TransientThe average rate of rise of voltage to this peak value te (2 eee ee Wee yy hae tan! £@, yD -E wGyh dg yy wet 1G cue tH. to damping ¢~ 0 The equations for ehie special case can be ‘obtained fron the general equtions for under~ damping by setting R a ani { equal to zero, Vhile'® becomes «p+ esta crept giamae ao elace so, singe ttcoroe an cs) on oo) on en Gane IL _Over-damped condition, D1 For this condition, the parameter w is de- fined as syention (9) a 0) bce, reapetivey 8 Bo fe RN Cosh oe = sinh et th sinb wee 8) alte = (© = 21) Ga cosh = : Seed san anest + Keon oe = Botan axe on (@-RI) 2a+1 & anh ot = on RD ae de os + -0e - oheode— a a 1 5 HO, "Gin? Getintten of gy = a ew) att ep Sree [ Lt 8a - Is) Me NC = 1 feof normally stringent, such as to accentuate the importance of one over the other, then Fig. 4 oF Fig. 6 and the corresponding curves on Fig. 8 aay de ned. Hovever, note thet there Se Little im Provement in the ¢ricical parameter over thet Hiven by the compromise detign for the same value Pf xoA plot of a typical recovery transient vith The loss W in resistor B may be determined from ‘a smubber designed for “compromise” dasping te the energy belance requirenest! Shown in Figs 9, £OF x" O16, C= 0.675. The thy- Histor and capacitor voltages tre shoma; the volt Lose = Energy from source - Increase in age acrors te resistor (proportional to correat) Stored. in Capecitor Is" the differences between the tvo curves. _ Rm fe S Slope of the dashed Line ia Fig. 9 1s the normal- erence tn Eeray zed average dv/dt~ For the ideal o#te shere the recovery crest (ty te » | wei Tpittes e> O'and the anyeptotes oF che {a ee varetl ca capbecae” tvbvew yield 3 , . «wn gr 0.96 , _ a oo» were, -v)- deh) -k at - ad afer . % (eriaedove! 22, = seo,-ype- 2t4). 4 az. Soubber ners] expression forthe Lowes Tals {8 the desired general ages a TINS LEREILSI tel tres's Ge somes Forvthe ambber cleceiey | Soy 0s SEG, = SASS EaMe tres ct'ae'matent ania tye state variables. Then, the snubber loss during 2.42 Uhelrecevery eransion® 15 obtained ase epecta wed? edi wy se, in the circuit of Fig. 1, that the tie ( +) :) «s) capac eeeethetne Chena tow Wy 80 ty sea the 2 x . SECS if tate ta Greer, front tote, Hey the fttachomue rile ose that ll of he enwenyctprad dn the tntuee torvolar fa {she necntneue crreny thy Sac "NSSULLOGS%E sense cred to en tote se rats pated aye euctor IAS pleted iavvige a? Suan fests ‘che perontt adds ley unten ie! the Penalty pala for Letting av/de and the volta teeecw (60) pike,” Resides the Loss at the tae of Fecevetyy the sgubber will diasipace energy equel ton I/2C (a0) any elee a step volenge thange. (AE) secure in the Voltage waveform acrott the device, The losses doe to the seoothly-varying portions of the wivefore, such as a sinusoidal supply woleesey, art EemeeatDy oegligtote’ in Compercaon wien the akep Snubber Loss and Thyrfstor Dissipation af Time of enon In particular, when a thyristor turns on | farirton from a voltage E, an energy lose 1/2 CEf will wourase occur. “Because Of the finite voltage fall cine of the thyristor, some of Ms energy will be Gissipaced In the thyristor intesd Sf the damping resistor, and the capacitor discharge increases } the initial di/ée in the ehyristor. An estimate ‘of the fraction of the snubber discharge loss Y that is absorbed by the thyristor can be derived “s Af sove simplifying assumption is made regarding. wvaiston wunee S. vourase PER UNIT the thyristor voltage fall characteristic. For’ 1 + + example, ruppose chit the thyristor voltage faite t exponentially vith a cime constant r and is inde te RADIANS pendent of the current, then 9 Typical Recovery Voltage Transient 706, f= 0475 erect ws)ote that this exerciae 16 not intenied to toply chat any actual ehyristor has such « characteris Efe, but only to. provide a sieple order~ tude lose eptina ce if the observed fall incerval can be approsimately £18 to auch « curve, The discharge current { of « smbber having a tie comstant Ty = RC ts given by Te He (em ent) of The energy W, absorbed by che thyristor i= then . ant wp flea eg BE wo which is, as 4 fraction of the total lots -—t @ ‘mis result simply seater that the loss is divided berveen the thyristor and ics snubher in propor- Elon to their reapective tiae constaate, If ehe rise of Load current 1 in » parallel pach chrough the same thyristor ts'1inited: by an Enductence L and driven by the voltage (© - #), here the thyristor voltage 1 the same assumed exponential fall (66), thea Phe Eps EC ev) co) act {: srQ e)] om Jeton produced by this load The thyristor at current rise i Figs 10 Forward Polarized Soubber Re Fig. 1 Reverse Polarized Snubber a fF et, ae = 22 2 Lafarge 7 An practice, the rise of load current will mat continue indefinitely, but will terminsce at sone level 1. However, equation (72) for the svitching lols vill be approaintely true Lf the tine to Feach the current ty is several tieee greater than the tine consthnt 7. If the snebber Eine constant is auch greater then the ehyristor fall time (7,5>1), the ratio of the two contrie butions to the thyristor avitehing lose simplifies ¥ He omy Where the primary function of the snubter is to line the forvard dv/dt applied tos thyristor at the time of recovery of an inverse feedback rectifier, the scheme shom in Pig. 10 4s often used. The Fesistor Ry is the damping resistance during forvard dv/de, while Ry lee euch Fesistance to Minit the snubber when the thyristor in fired, When forvard voltage is reapplied to a thy: Fistor as @ rasp of relacively lov dv/de,, the Brine purpore of the snubber is to mie’ the re verse voltage spike. ere, the arrangement of Fig. 12 can be used to advantage. Dumping reats- tance Ry is effective during reverse recovery, while resistance By of higher value discharges the snubber capacitor C during the period oF forvard voltage before the thyristor ta fired again,Wote that polarized snubbers do not reduce the circuit loceee, bUE only prevent the Losi from being distipated in the thyristor. For cuanple, a reverse polarized snubber prevents positive charge from being put on the. snubber Capacitor during the Tow-loss racp dv/t, bie the Slecked reverse charge 4s dissipated in the dte- charge resistor. then 2 pair of ehyristors are connected to inverse parellel, as in 4 cyclocowerter, the crubber mist be effective during recovery of either polarity. ‘Therefore, polarizing srrange- ‘Sent dors not appear to be practical, as indicated Taig. 12. Hovever, 1 may be potsible to reduce the etubber size by employing notelinear reactor which are uneateraced and hive « high value of in- Guetance at the tine of recovery when the current fs close to zero, Such reactors, shove in Fig. M1 Sod 12, sleo feduce ehe initial di/de after, turncon {2} +, Experience has shove chat non-linear feactors cannot be advaneageously eaployed in cf- cult arrangements of the type show in Fig. 10. Fig. 12 Unpolarized Smiter ‘Gonelusions A procedure for selecting the optima capaci- tance ond damping resistance for a simple snubber weed to Limit the recovery tranaient of pover rectifiers or thyristors ya presented. In fe fone circuits, the recovery of one device produces References steps of voltage not only across itself but acro: 1. Es Es VonZastrov and J. W, Galloway, “Commu ‘other devices in the circuit 45 yell. These other tation Behaviour of Diffused High Gorrene devices often have snubbert which contribute to Seceltier Diodes", ate tees Suppression of he eranaient, and ete 4i5e of the tion Record, 1966, Fare 4, p. 10. (Also ‘soubber provided for each device my be reduces oe 2 Pil ‘The circuit action during the recovery transient ‘Applic Wote 200.62, can often, but not alvays, be represented by an Squseient clrcett of the siopie fore in Fig 2, p, A, Paice and P. Wood, "Noniiasar: Reactors C1" somtimes, sruther designed’ to suppress 7° 2; Hotactive Elenenes: for tyristor Ghenies,” Seu ereesene ttt hot be ontin fr euppranring Thee feene, on Hagnetice, Vol, MO-3, ‘Noe 3s Stocker transient oecurving t's different tiee tn dope. 130d; Sn agetdis® Theccyee ana tcompronsw at he gees" More con- plex tnubocr srrangenents aey also be used, sch” 3.4, 2, Rice and Le Ey Mickels, "Commutation othe bridge carentt (4) = dorde Ettecte tn toyeiater:fhreesPuase Bridge Gonvertere,"" IEEE Trans. on industry and Ine energy of he devin recnery cureent General Applications," Val. 10krs, Nos 6p trapped in the comsesting indvctance cast Bove Bee 1568, pps 665-672. Sisripaced ince snubbery avd ee charging of che itor tye voltage step causes adi" 4G. cyiete, "Richelinien for die oop ruses ait + G Thiele, "Richtlinien Mesesaung der she price of tts lintting f ‘TNagerspeichereftekt-beachaltmng von Thyria~ Slee ieee ei Preaot ig feeeregines tn Eegete log a ett, Seite Meee cette tee ous Munteiee top the Base to 2,78 tims the energy 1/2 L12. When the thy~ ristors), ETZ-A Vol. 90, No. 14, 1969, pp. Slammer oe es ee Sine is dissipated, and 4, considerable fraction of tt. nay be absorbed by che ehyristor if the snubber 1s fot polarizeds Tf the pormon Voltage fe the same jedgenent 4s the conmutating voltage, the diackarge lose ts ‘This work vas supported in part by the U.5. ‘lao 2.78 tives the exepped recovery energy. Thus, Army Mobility Equipment Research end Development the necd to dissipate recovery energy requires a Center (MERDC), PE, Belvoir, Va. under Contract total additional dissipation of about aix tines No. DAAK 02-67C-0160 through the General Electric thee recovery energy. FOF Bigh frequency opera Semteonducter Products Dept, Auburn, Ne Ys Elon, the nevd for devieet having = amell recovery Corrent and high dv/de capability as velll ax high G1/4e capability becomes #pParent. a