CEE 468

Industrial Electronics
1
PART 3
Thyristors
2
Basic Structure and Operation
 Thyristors are usually three-terminal devices with four
layers of alternating p- and n-type materials.

 The control terminal of the thyristor, called the gate (G)

electrode, may be connected to an integrated and complex
structure as part of the device.

3
Basic Structure and Operation
 The other two terminals, anode (A) and cathode (K), handle
the large applied potentials (often of both polarities) and
conduct the major current through the thyristor.

4
Basic Structure and Operation
 There are four major types of thyristors:

i) silicon controlled rectifier (SCR);

ii) gate turn-off thyristor (GTO);

iii) MOS-controlled thyristor (MCT) and its various forms;

iv) static induction thyristor (SITh).

5
Basic Structure and Operation
 The operation of thyristors is as follows. When a positive
voltage is applied to the anode (with respect to a cathode),
the thyristor is in its forward-blocking state. The center
junction J2 (see Fig. 3.1) is reverse-biased. In this
operating mode the gate current is held to zero (open-
circuit).

6
Basic Structure and Operation
 In practice, the gate electrode is biased to a small negative
voltage (with respect to the cathode) to reverse-bias the
GK-junction J3 and prevent charge-carriers from being
injected into the p-base.

7
Basic Structure and Operation
 In this condition only thermally generated leakage current
flows through the device and can often be approximated as
zero in value.

8
Basic Structure and Operation
 As long as the forward applied voltage does not exceed the
value necessary to cause excessive carrier multiplication in
the depletion region around J2 (avalanche breakdown), the
thyristor remains in an off-state (forward blocking).

9
Basic Structure and Operation
 If the applied voltage exceeds the maximum forward
blocking voltage of the thyristor, it will switch to its on-
state. When a positive gate current is injected into the
device J3 becomes forward-biased and electrons are
injected from the n-emitter into the p-base.

10
Current-Voltage Curves for Thyristors
 A plot of the anode current (iA) as a function of anode
cathode voltage (VAK ) is shown in Fig. 3.3.

11
Current-Voltage Curves for Thyristors
 The forward-blocking mode is shown as the low-current
portion of the graph (solid curve around operating point
‘‘1’’).

12
Current-Voltage Curves for Thyristors
 At operating point ‘‘1,’’ very little current flows (Ico only)
through the device.

13
Current-Voltage Curves for Thyristors
 However, if the applied voltage exceeds the forward-
blocking voltage, the thyristor switches to its on- or
conducting-state (shown as operating point ‘‘2").

14
Current-Voltage Curves for Thyristors
 The effect of gate current is to lower the blocking voltage at
which switching takes place.

15
Current-Voltage Curves for Thyristors
 The portion of the graph indicating forward conduction
shows the large values of iA that may be conducted at
relatively low values of VAK , similar to a power diode.

16
Current-Voltage Curves for Thyristors
 The minimum anode current that will cause the device to
remain in forward conduction as it switches from forward-
blocking is called the latching current IL.

17
Current-Voltage Curves for Thyristors
 The minimum value of anode current necessary to keep the
device in forward-conduction after it has been operating at
a high anode current value is called the holding current IH.

18
Bidirectional Control Thyristor
 The Bidirectional control thyristor (BCT) is an integrated
assembly of two antiparallel thyristors on one Si wafer.
 A low-power device similar to the BCT, but in existence for
many years, is the Triac. A simplified cross section of a
Triac is shown in Fig. 3.23.

19
Applications
 The most important application of thyristors is for line-
frequency, phase-controlled rectifiers.
 A single-phase controlled rectifier is shown in Fig. 3.31.

20
Applications
 The presence of thyristors makes the average output
voltage controllable by appropriate gating of the thyristors.
If the gate signals to the thyristors were continuously
applied, the thyristors in Fig. 3.31 behave as diodes.

21
Applications
 If no gate currents are supplied they behave as open
circuits. Using this feature it is possibleb to produce an
average output voltage less than the average output
voltage obtained from an uncontrolled rectifier.

22
Applications
 Three-phase converters can be made in different ways,
according to the system in which they are employed. The
basic circuit used to construct these topologies is shown in
Fig. 3.32.

23
Applications
 Motor Control
 Another important application of thyristors is in motor
control circuits.
 They are used to construct the first stage of an electric
motor drive in order to vary the amplitude of the voltage
waveform across the windings of the electrical motor as it is
shown in Fig. 3.35.

24
Applications
 Motor Control
 An electronic controller controls the gate current of these
thyristors. The rectifier and inverter sections can be
thyristor circuits.

25
Applications
 UPS
 Another application of thyristors is as a static transfer
switch, used to improve the reliability of uninterruptible
power supplies (UPS) as shown in Fig. 3.39.

26
Applications
 Under normal conditions the load is permanently connected
to the power line, and in event of a line outage, the load is
disconnected from the power line and connected to the UPS
system.

27