POWER SWITCHES AND THEIR DRIVERS

1. Power Electronic Devices

Power switches and their symbols are given in Table 1.

Break down Power diode IGBT

voltage is
(rectifier, fast (insulated
up to Kv
and and and schotky gate BJT)
6
forward
Uncontrolled power
current is diodes ) switch when it's ON or
KA
OFF

Thyristor or MCT (MOS

2 SRC (silicon
controlled
controlled
thyristor)
rectifier) 7
SCR
Triac GTO (gate

3 turn
thyristor)
of

8
BJT (bipolar IGCT
junction (integrated
transistor) gate
4 commutated 9
thyristor)

MOSFET Darlington
(metal oxide transistor
semiconductor

5 field
transistor)
effect

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Table 1 Power switches and their symbols

Advances in semiconductor elements (MOS devices) have expanded the application areas of
power electronics. Another factor that improves the power electronics converters that

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 advancement in microcontroller (PIC, dsPIC, DSP, FPGA..) technology. Hence, complex
algorithms can be achieved with faster and cheaper controllers.

2. Role of Power Switch in Power Electronics

in power electronic we used switch in 2 states and these states are lowest power dissipation
and these process we don't use active region only controlled device switch and is called switch
mode operation

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 switching loss

Total power dissipation on power device is related in switching loss

if switching loss are high you need to use big heat to cooling devices
switching loss totaly is heating up surface we should use heating to keep device cool

we need to to drive power

devices like thyristor use to
thyristor drive
mosfet use mosfet drive
logic signals(0,5V)
can't use turn on/off
because can't
controlled

we use in power devices in

voltage controller because
every device like BJT
between Collector and
emitter ther's capacitor that
need to charge and discharge
so can effect poer devices we
must be use Driver

3
is interface
between control
circuit
(microcontroller)
and power circuit
(IGPT)

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means your application may be high frequancy

5
when you applied negative sign
of diode high voltage after
threshould voltage will be occur
break down voltage

Break down voltage

Diode like until reach 0.6-0.8 will be forward

we need to design switch mode power supply not

great application it's like 50kHz we used diode when
we applied voltage it's forward after that in off state
(reverse) the current will decrease in zero until
negative then will be come back to zero and called
Reverse recovery process
operation principles are same only classification
switch characteristics

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 and forward current it's important for you current voltage
limit according to you design exmple if you design 5A and
200V you diode must be greater than 200V and 5A

it's important for high frequancy applications

you can use grid applications in

50-60Hz

is used high frequancy applications

it has very low recovery time so it's fastest switch characteristcs but it's break down voltage less
than 200V so it's High frequancy low voltage application

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 nearly zero

like GTO MCT IGCT all of them

are same family

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 if you applied current in gate
PNP is active then it activate
NPN and anode to cathode
cuurent is from here

minimum current
anode cathode level to maintain
current thyristor on you can
check value in
datasheet
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yacni intii hore oo dhan
wuu dansanaa markaan
gate current ku applied
garayny buu siyaaday
mana aha sida diodka
garafka diodka waxaan
ku sawiray colourka
choculatka ah

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 yacni 1st ah wuxuu
controlayaa only postive
side halka kan 2nd uu
controlayo negative sideka

It's importan espicially UPS

(uninterruptible power supply)
inverters, converters, Drivers etc

3. IGCT

The integrated gate-commutated thyristor (IGCT) is a special type of GTO thyristor and, like
the GTO thyristor, a fully controllable power switch (turns on like a transistor but conducts like
a thyristor). It can be turned on and off by a gate signal, has lower conduction losses as
compared to GTO thyristors, and withstands higher rates of voltage rise (dV/dt), such that no
snubber circuits are required for most applications. The main applications are in variable
frequency inverters, drives, and traction.

Because Driver circuit is integrate to the power supply

High power frequency like 800kw or 1kw it's posible to use IGCT but we should prefer
11 parallel
inverts because current and voltage level of GTO is greater than IGCT so we used that
 The structure of an IGCT is very similar to a GTO thyristor. In an IGCT, the gate turn-off
current is greater than the anode current. This results in shorter turn-off times. The main
difference compared with a GTO thyristor is a reduction in cell size, combined with a much
more substantial gate connection, resulting in a much lower inductance in the gate drive circuit
and drive circuit connection. The very high gate currents and the fast dI/dt rise of the gate
current means that regular wires cannot be used to connect the gate drive to the IGCT.
The drive circuit printed circuit board (PCB) is INTEGRATED into the package of the
device. The drive circuit surrounds the device and a large circular conductor attaching to the
edge of the IGCT die is used. The large contact area and short distance reduces both the
inductance and resistance of the connection. The IGCT's much shorter turn-off times compared
with GTO thyristors allows it to operate at higher frequencies. Up to several kilohertz for very
short periods of time are possible. However, because of high switching losses, typical operating
frequencies are up to 500 Hz [Irwin, D.J., 2011].

Applications of IGCT
6.6Kv in induction motor High voltage
Medium voltage drivers, marine drivers

Co-generation

Wind power converters

Battery storage systems

Solid state breakers

Traction power compensator

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 4. Modelling using PSpice

Circuit for simulation and switch control waveforms (Mohan, N.)

PSpice simulation circuit

5. Questions
Draw the symbol of IGBT and IV characteristic.
What are the differences between BJT and MOSFET?
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What kind of diodes are used in power electronics applications?
SCR is used in ……. applications.
Give an example for voltage controlled device.
Explain switching losses by drawing its waveforms.
……. is a half controlled power switch. ……. is an uncontrolled power switch. ….. is a fully
controlled power switch.

yacni hadaad rabtid inaad design garaysid cml inductive load kaas oo leh
20khz/100V/10A

maadaama nalaga rabo inductive load oo ah shay stored ah waa inaan ku

darnaa BJT diode lkn MOSFET horay buu u lahaa maadaama BJT uu
yahay current control 1A must be Base emitter current
halka MOSFETku uu yahay voltage controlled so Vgs must be 12v
hadba kan ku haboon baan u dooranyanaa

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 marka uu on yahay current maraya outputka waa 100v/10ohm so waa
10A lkn voltagka Vdc ah waa zero marka uu Vgs=12v lkn marka uu
yahay Vgs=0 Vdc=100v

6. Laboratory Study – MOSFET Driver

Simulation of MOSFET driver. Totem pole driver (emitter follower, page 432) circuit PSpice
model (Hart, D. 2011).

PSpice model of control and power circuit

tan ku apply garee Logic signal oo ah 5v and 0 so logic signal ma controli karno waxaana rabnaa
inaan swtich sameeno so we must be used MOSFET driver in IC we can use 4427Ic oo ah qaybta
Box buluuga ah ku jira so markaad ku appliy garaysid 5V Q1 is on Q2 is off Q3 is is on so gate of
MOSFET will be 0 the VGS=0 if VGS=0 so switch is off
So hadaan ku appliy garaysid 0V Q1 is off Q2 is on Q3 is is off so gate of MOSFET will be 12v the
VGS=12 if VGS=12 so switch is on

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 Results

7. Laboratory Study – Half wave rectifier

PSpice simulation of single phase half wave rectifier with resistive load, Example 3-1 page 67.

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 8. References
The industrial electronics handbook, Wilamowski, B.M., Irwin, D.J., 2011.
Power electronics, Hart, D., 2011.

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