19EEE111 : Electrical and Electronic

Engineering (3-0-0-3)

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 Outline

• Thyristors - SCR
– Construction
– Working
– Characteristics
– Ratings
– Triggering Methods
– Applications

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 THYRISTORS
• A family of devices known an as thyristors are
constructed of four semiconductor layers (PNPN).
• Thyristors include the 4-layer diode, the silicon-
controlled rectifier (SCR), the diac, the triac, and
the silicon-controlled switch (SCS).
• These types of thyristors share certain common
characteristics in addition to their four-layer
construction.

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 THYRISTORS
• They act as open circuits capable of withstanding a certain
rated voltage until they are triggered.
• When triggered, they turn ON and become low-resistance
current paths and remain so, even after the trigger is
removed, until the current is reduced to a certain level or
until they are triggered off, depending on the type of
device.
• Thyristors can be used to control the amount of ac power to
a load and are used in lamp dimmers, motor speed controls,
ignition systems and charging circuits, to name a few.
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 THYRISTORS - SCR
• The silicon-controlled rectifier - SCR
• This is a three – terminal device and, like the Shockley
diode, it has four layers (PNPN). The extra terminal is
attached to the middle P-layer and is called the gate as can
be seen in figure.

• The function of the gate is to

switch the SCR on. Thereafter
the gate serves no further
purpose.

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 SCR equivalent circuit
• The device acts like a PNP transistor directly
coupled to an NPN transistor as can be seen figure.

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 Turning the SCR on
• The SCR can be turned on by forward biasing it and
exceeding the breakover voltage (VBO).
• By placing a positive pulse on the gate, any time
before this happens, the SCR can be turned on as
well.

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 Turning the SCR off
• Either interrupt the current flow through the SCR or
drop the forward current to below the holding
current value.
• This is often done by reversing the current flow, a
method called forced commutation.

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 SCR characteristics

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 SCR characteristics
• Forward blocking Mode
• Forward Conduction Mode and
• Reverse Blocking Mode

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 SCR characteristics
• Forward Blocking Mode
• In this mode of operation, the Silicon Controlled
Rectifier is connected such that the anode terminal
is made positive with respect to cathode while the
gate terminal kept open. In this state junctions J1
and J3 are forward biased and the junction J2
reverse biased.
• Due to this, a small leakage current flows through
the SCR.
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 SCR characteristics
• Forward Conduction Mode
• In this mode, SCR or thyristor comes into the conduction
mode from blocking mode. It can be done in two ways as
either by applying positive pulse to gate terminal or by
increasing the forward voltage (or voltage across the anode
and cathode) beyond the break over voltage of the SCR.
• The avalanche breakdown occurs at junction J2, therefore
the SCR turns into conduction mode and acts as a closed
switch thereby current starts flowing through it.

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 SCR characteristics
• The forward characteristics are similar to those of a
normal diode but it includes a forward breakover
voltage (VBO), the point at which the device will
start conducting in the forward region regardless of
whether it has received a positive pulse on the gate
or not.
• The holding current indicates the lowest current
level that must be maintained before the device
switches off.
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 SCR characteristics
• Reverse Blocking Mode
• In this mode of operation, cathode is made positive
with respect to anode. Then the junctions J1 and J3
are reverse biased and J2 is forward biased.
• This reverse voltage drives the SCR into reverse
blocking region results to flow a small leakage
current through it and acts as an open switch as
shown in figure.

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 SCR characteristics
• The reverse characteristics mirror those of a normal
diode in that there is a very small leakage current
when reverse biased.
• If the device is reverse biased to the point where it
reaches its breakdown voltage (VBR), it will break
down and start conducting a very large avalanche
current as can be seen in figure.

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 Thyristor Ratings
• Thyristor ratings or SCR ratings are very much
required for operating it in a safe zone.
• The reliable operation can be done when a
thyristor does not violate its voltage and current
rating during working period.
• A thyristor, or SCR may have several ratings, such
as voltage, current, power, dv/dt, di/dt, turn on time,
turn off time, etc. Generally these ratings are
specified in the data sheet given by manufacture.
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 Thyristor Ratings
Anode Voltage Rating
• This rating gives us a brief idea about withstanding
power of a thyristor in forward blocking made in
the absence of gate current.
Peak Working Forward Blocking or Forward OFF
State Voltage (VDWM)
• It specifies the maximum forward voltage (positive
voltage that applied across anode and cathode) that
can be withstand by the SCR at the time of working.
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 Thyristor Ratings
Latching Current.
• It is the minimum device current, which must be
attained by the device, before the gate drive is
removed while turning on, for maintaining it into
conduction.
Holding Current.
• It is the minimum on state current required to keep
the SCR in conducting state without any gate drive.
Its usual value is 5 m A.
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 Thyristor Ratings
BREAK OVER VOLTAGE
• It is the minimum forward voltage gate being open
at which SCR starts conducting Heavily i.e., turned
on
PEAK REVERSE VOLTAGE(PRV)
• It is the maximum reverse voltage applied to an
SCR without conducting in the reverse direction.

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 Thyristor Ratings
FORWARD CURRENT RATING
• It is the maximum anode current that an SCR is
capable of passing without destruction.
CIRCUIT FUSING RATING
• It is the product of square of forward surge current
and the time of duration of the surge.

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 Triggering(Turn-on)Methods of
Thyristor
• The turning on Process of the SCR is known as
Triggering.
• In other words, turning the SCR from Forward
Blocking state to Forward Conduction state is
known as Triggering.

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 Triggering(Turn-on)Methods of
Thyristor
The various SCR triggering methods are
1. Forward Voltage Triggering
2. Thermal or Temperature Triggering
3. Radiation or Light triggering
4. dv/dt Triggering
5. Gate Triggering

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 SCR applications
(a) On-off control of current

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 SCR applications
(a) On-off control of current
• The current is controlled manually by placing a
small positive current onto the gate via a switch.
• This arrangement would prevent the switch contacts
from burning as a very low current to the gate could
be used to turn on a very high current from the
anode to the cathode as can be seen in figure.
• A second switch would be used to switch the SCR
off.
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 SCR applications
(a) On-off control of current
• If the anode-cathode voltage of an SCR used as a
switch is 0.25V and the gate-cathode voltage is
0,65V, determine the anode and gate currents if the
voltage applied to a 6kΩ gate resistor is 3V. The
load that is driven is 47Ω and the supply voltage is
15V.

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 SCR applications
(a) On-off control of current
• If the anode-cathode voltage of an SCR used as a
switch is 0.25V and the gate-cathode voltage is
0,65V, determine the anode and gate currents if the
voltage applied to a 6kΩ gate resistor is 3V. The
load that is driven is 47Ω and the supply voltage is
15V.

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 SCR applications
(b) Half-wave power control

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 SCR applications
(b) Half-wave power control
• The SCR can be made to trigger at any point on the
positive half-cycle of an AC wave to provide speed
control for electric motors, variation of settings in
electric heaters or control for light dimmers this can
be seen by the circuit in figure.

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 SCR applications
(c) Backup lighting for power interruptions

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 SCR applications
(c) Backup lighting for power interruptions
The SCR can be used as a control circuit to sense
when AC power fails and to automatically have its
function taken over by a battery;
it will sense when the AC power is restored and revert
the circuit back to the AC supply as can be seen in
figure.

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 SCR applications
(d) Over-voltage protection circuit

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 SCR applications
(d) Over-voltage protection circuit
• In the case of overvoltage from a rectified supply,
the SCR in figure is turned on, connecting the AC
supply to earth.
• This causes a current surge from the AC supply,
which would blow the AC fuse, thus interrupting
power to the rectifier.

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 SCR applications
(e) Sawtooth generator

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 SCR applications
(e) Sawtooth generator
• The SCR in conjunction with an RC timing circuit
can be used to produce the sawtooth wave, which is
used as the sweep in the time-base generator of an
oscilloscope as can be seen in figure.

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 References
1. A.P.Malvino,”Electronic Principles”,7th Edition ,Tata
McGraw Hill,2007.
2. https://www.studocu.com/en-za/document/durban-
university-of-technology/electrical-principles-2/thyristors-
lecture-notes-3/9607054
3. https://www.studocu.com/en-us/document/miami-
university/industrial-electronics/scr-and-thyristor-lecture-
notes-2-3/2310502
4. https://www.electrical4u.com/diac/
5. www.electricaltechnology.com
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