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Power Electronics
Power Electronics
THYRISTORS
A Thyristors is one of the most important types of
power semiconductor devices.They are used
extensively in power electronics circuits. The word
thyristor is originated from Greek word. The word thy
means switch. The total word thyristor indicates that the
switch belongs to a transistor family. The
Development of thyristor has revolutionized the use of
semiconductors for power control. The thyristor was first
invented by Bell Laboratory in U.S.A. in the year 1948
and it (100V,10A) was first introduced in the market by
General Electric Company in the year 1957. However,
commercially it started becoming available after 1960.
Since this time there has been a rapid growth in the
control equipment making use of thyristors.
THYISTOR TURN-ON.
A thyristor is turned on by increasing the anode
current. This can be accomplished in one of the
following ways.
1. Temperature Triggering.
If the temperature of a thyristor is high, there will be an
increase in the number of electron hole pairs, which
would increase the leakage current. This increase in
currents would cause1 and 2 to increase. Due to
regenrative action,(1 +2 ) may tend to be unity and
the thyristor may be turned on. This type of turn-on
may cause thermal runaway and is normally avoided.
2. Light Triggering.
When light is thrown on the gate-cathode junction
through a light window, the electron-hole pairs will
increase ( free charge carriers electrons and holes are
generated ). If the intensity of this light exceeds a
certain value, the thyristor is turned on.Such a thyristor
is known as light activated SCR (LASCR).
GATE CURRENT.
If a thyristor is forward biased, the injection of gate
current by applying positive gate voltage between the
gate and cathode terminals would turn on the thyristor.
As the gate current is increased, the forward blocking
voltage is decreased.
The following points should be considered in designing
the gate control circuit:
1. The gate signal should be removed after the
thyristor turned on. A continuous gating signal would
increase the power loss in the gate junction.
2. While thyristor is reverse biased. There should be no
gate signal; otherwise, the thyristor may fail due to an
increased leakage current.
3. The width of gate pulse tG must be longer than the
time required for the anode current to rise to the
holding current value IH. In practice, the pulse width tG
is normally made more than the turn on time ton of the
thyristor
Theory of operation
As shown in the circuit, R2 is the variable resistance, R
is the stabilizing resistance. In case R2 is zero, gate
current may flow from source, through load, R1, Diode
D, and gate to cathode. This current should not
exceed permissible gate current . This current can be
limit with the value of R1
OPERATION
OFthat
RESISTANCE
CIRCUITS
It is thus seen
function of R1FIRING
is to limit
the gate
current to a safe value as R2 is varied.
Resistance R should have such a value that maximum
voltage drop across it does not exceed maximum
possible gate voltage
R C FIRING CIRCUITS
The limited range of firing angle control by
resistance firing circuit can be overcome by
RC firing circuit.
When this emitter voltage vE (or vC) reaches the peakpoint voltage VP (= VBB + VD), the unijunction
between E B1 breaks down. As a result, UJT turns
on and capacitor C rapidly discharges through low
resistance R1 with a time constant t2 = R1C. Here t2 is
much smaller than t1. When the emitter voltage
decays to the valley-point voltage VV, UJT turns off
Pulse Transformers
Pulse transformers are used quite often in firing circuits
for ,SCRs and GTOs. This transformer has usually two
secondaries. The turns ratio from primary to the two
secondaries is 2:1:1 or 1:1:1. These transformers are
designed to have low winding resistance, low leakage
reactar~ce and Iow interwinding capacitance. The
advantages of using pulse transformers in triggering
semiconductor devices are:
(a) They provide isolation of low voltage firing circuit
from high voltage anode-cathode power circuit and
(a) The trigger pulse can be coupled to one or more
devices from the same trigger source by means of pulse
transformer.
A square pulse at the primary terminals of a pulse
transformer may be transmitted at its secondary
terminals faithfully as a square wave or it may be
SNUBBER CIRCUIT
dv /dt triggering
Choppers
Introduction
To produce quality goods in any industry, the
processes necessarily require the use of variable
speed drives.
Variable speed d.c. and a.c. drives are being in
creasingly used in all industries. These drives and
processes take power from d.c. voltage sources.
In many cases, conversion of the d.c. source voltage
to different levels is required. For example, subway
cars, trolley buses, or battery operated vehicles
require power from a fixed voltage d.c. source.
However, their speed control requires conversion of
fixed voltage d.c. source to a variable-voltage d.c.
source for the armature of the d.c. motor.
Types of DC Chopper
According to the output voltages DC Chopper
are classified as follows
Step Down Chopper
Step Up Chopper
Step Up-Down Chopper
Topologies of switching
regulators
(1)
(2)
(3)
Buck Regulators
Boost Regulators
Buck-Boost Regulators
Buck Regulators.
In a buck regulator, the average output voltage VO, is less
than the input voltage VS
BOOST REGULATORS
In a boost regulator, the output voltage is greater than the
input voltage . A boost regulator using a power MOSFET
as shown in fig. .The circuit operation can be divided
into two modes
Buck-Boost Regulators
A buck-boost regulator provides an output voltage that
may be less than or greater than the input voltage
hence the name "buck-boost"; the output voltage polarity
is opposite to that of the input voltage. This regulator is
also known as an inverting regulator
CYCLOCONVERTERS
A device which converts input power at one frequency to
output power at a different frequency with one-stage
conversion is called a cycloconverter.
A cycloconverter is thus a one-stage frequency changer.
Basically, cycloconverters are of two types, namely :
(i)
Step down cycloconverters
(ii)
Step up cycloconverters
In step-down cycloconverters, the output frequency f 0 is
lower than the supply frequency fS fo < fS .
In step-up cycloconverters, fQ >fs.
At present, the applications of cycloconverters include
the following :
(i)
Speed control of high-power ac drives
(ii)
Induction heating
(iii) For converting variable-speed alternator voltage to
constant frequency output voltage for use as power
supply in aircraft or shipboards
INVERTERS
Introduction
It is DC to AC converter
An Inverter enables one to convert a supply of dc input
voltage to a symmetrical ac output voltage of a desired
magnitude and frequency
This output voltage may be fixed or variable, at a fixed or
variable frequency.
The variable output voltage can be obtained either by
varying the input dc voltage, keeping the inverter at a
constant gain or by varying the gain of the inverter
The gain of the inverter is defined as the ratio of the ac
output voltage to the dc input voltage
Classification of Inverters
There are many ways to classify inverters, but they
are broadly divided in to two types, viz., singlephase, and three-phase; these are further classified
according to the taxonomy of Figure .1.
Classification of Inverters
In amplifier-type inverters, transistors are used as
amplifiers and due to high power dissipation in the
device itself, they generally give a low efficiency
In saturated-type inverters, devices are used as a
switch; therefore, they show high efficiency
Transistors, and IGBTs are generally used in low- and
medium-power requirements
Thyristors, and GTOs are used in high-power
applications.
These inverters can also be classified into two
groups: voltage-driven inverters and current-driven
inverters
Series-inverter control
This method of voltage control involves the use of two or
more inverters in series. Fig. (a) illustrates how the
output voltage of two inverters can be summed up with
the help of transformers to obtain an adjustable output
voltage.