Lecture-6

Turning off SCR

Nadim Chowdhury
Department of EEE
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology

nadim@eee.buet.ac.bd
Commutation
The Forced commutation technique is further divided into five categories
which are Class A, B, C, D, and E.

q Class A: Self or Load Commutation

q Class B: Resonant-Pulse Commutation
q Class C: Complementary Commutation
q Class D: Impulse Commutation
q Class E: External Pulse Commutation

2
Class D: Impulse Commutation
Here, T1 is the main thyristor that is required to be
commutated while Tx is an auxiliary thyristor which
is part of external circuitry that turns off the device.
However, the circuit also includes elements such as
a capacitor, diode, and inductor combinedly that
operate to perform the commutation of the thyristor.

Necessary assumptions are as follows:

•The load current must be constant.
•The capacitor is charged up to the maximal value
of the supply input.

3
Class D: Impulse Commutation
• Initially, on applying voltage V across the circuit but in the
absence of gate triggering pulse both the thyristors are in the
off state. Due to the supply input, the diode in the below-
given figure is in reverse biased condition thus, no flow of
current takes place through the circuit hence the voltage
across the capacitor will be 0.
• Further, out of the two thyristors, the auxiliary thyristor is
provided gate triggering pulse which brings it to conducting
state. Thus, the current starts to flow in the circuit as shown
below
4
Class D: Impulse Commutation
This flow of current charges the capacitor C with a similar
polarity as that of supply input and it gets charged up to
the peak of the supply value i.e., Vdc. While the current
flows from the positive terminal of the battery to the
negative terminal by passing through the load. However,
once the capacitor gets fully charged then the polarity
across the capacitor reverse biases the auxiliary thyristor
i.e., Tx leading to turn it off. Hence, in this case, the
capacitor will store the charge.

Moreover, once Tx gets turned off then gate triggering

pulse is given to thyristor T1 thus it will get turned on under
the presence of supply input. As T1 comes into the
conducting state, then there will be two loop currents that
will flow through the circuit, and the flow of currents
through the circuit is clearly shown in the next slide.

5
Class D: Impulse Commutation

The current IL corresponds to the load current and we have

already assumed it to be constant at the beginning itself.
While IC corresponds to the current flowing through the series
LC circuit which gives rise to LC oscillations within that loop.
This current will be the discharging current of the capacitor.

As the negative half of the signal will reverse biases the

diode, therefore, that part of the circuit will be in conducting
state only during the positive half of the signal. In this case,
the inductor will store the energy, but as it is the property of
the inductor that it opposes the current that produced it hence
the inductor starts releasing the stored energy.

Due to the release of the stored energy of the inductor, the

capacitor in the circuit gets charged again but this time with
opposite polarity than the former case.

6
Class D: Impulse Commutation

Now, as T1 is in conducting state and we have to commutate T1 thus, for this

we need to trigger Tx i.e., the auxiliary thyristor. Once, Tx begins to conduct
along with T1 then the polarity across the capacitor will bring T1 to a reverse-
biased state and this will lead to turning the thyristor off. And this current will
continue to flow till the time the capacitor is holding the charge of reverse
polarity as the supply input. 7
Waveforms for Class D

8
Class E: External Pulse Commutation

9
Class E: External Pulse Commutation
• This is also known as External Pulse Commutation. In this, an
External Pulse Source is used to produce the Reverse Voltage
across the SCR (thyristor).
• The circuit below shows the Class-E Commutation Circuit
which uses a Pulse Transformer to produce the Commutating
Pulse and is designed with tight coupling between the
Primary and Secondary with a Small Air Gap.

10
Class E: External Pulse Commutation
Mode-1:

• When the SCR (thyristor) T1 is Triggered and Turned ON, the Current
starts to flow through the Pulse Transformer and Load Resistance RL.
The Current flows through the following path,

11
Class E: External Pulse Commutation
Mode-2:
• When an External Pulse Voltage VP is applied across the Primary of
the Pulse Transformer, a Voltage will be induced in the Secondary of
the Pulse Transformer.
• This induced Voltage in the Secondary appears as Reverse Voltage (-
VP) across the SCR (thyristor) T1.
• That means to Turn OFF SCR (thyristor) T1 a Positive Pulse is applied
to the Cathode Terminal and Negative Pulse is applied to the Anode
Terminal of the SCR from an External Pulse Generator via the Pulse
Transformer

12
Class E: External Pulse Commutation
• Subsequently, SCR (thyristor) T1 gets Turned OFF. Since the frequency
of Induced Pulse Voltage is very high, the Capacitor C is only charged
to about 1 volt and for the duration of the Turn-OFF Pulse the
Capacitor provides almost Zero Impedance.
• When the SCR (thyristor) T1 is Turned OFF completely, the Load
Current decays to Zero. Before the computation process, the
Capacitor Voltage remains at a value of about 1 volt.

13
Thank you for your attention !!

14