SY-IS-Sem 4 -Basic Power Electronics-22427

Sunil Nagare-9619015411

 Turn ON Mechanism of SCR

SCR can be turn ON by applying a current pulse of a specified magnitude & duration to
the gate of the device.

 Turn ON time : It is defined as the time taken by the SCR while going from OFF
state to ON state after gate current is applied.
= + +

 Different Turn ON Methods for SCR

 Forward voltage or High voltage triggering

A SCR will turn on if the forward anode to cathode voltage is greater than the forward
breakdown voltage . Because, then a sufficient leakage current will flow to
turn ON the SCR

 Temperature Triggering

If the temperature of a SCR increases, then there is an increase in the number of

electron hole pairs. This will increase the leakage current.

 Illumination triggering

If light of adequate frequency and intensity is allowed to strike the SCR junction,
then the photons will strike the electrons and increase the number of electron
hole pairs .

 dv/dt triggering

In construction of SCR there are four layers and three junctions J1,J2& J3.
Under forward bias condition junction J1 & J3 are forward biased whereas junction J2
is reverse biased. This reverse biased junction J2 behaves as a capacitor.

Now if the forward voltage is applied suddenly a charging current will flow through
capacitor. Thus device turns on.
If , V = voltage applied across the device
= junction capacitance
Then the instantaneous current is due to suddenly applied voltage is

= (dv/dt)

If (dv/dt) is large, the device may turn-on or trigger on, even when the voltage across
the device is small.

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 SY-IS-Sem 4 -Basic Power Electronics-22427
Sunil Nagare-9619015411

 Gate triggering
SCR can be turn ON by applying a current pulse of a specified magnitude & duration to
the gate of the device

 Resistor triggering circuit

In this circuit,

 R2 is the variable resistance to control the amount of gate current .

 The function of R1 is to limit the gate current to a safe value below maximum
permissible gate current
 Diode D allows the flow of current during positive half cycle only, as SCR can conduct
only during positive half cycle only when its anode is positive wrt cathode

 Advantages

 Circuit is simple to design

 It is economical
 Synchronization of gate circuit with ac mains, takes place automatically.

 Disadvantages

 It has a limited range of firing angle control up to 90 degree only

 It is highly sensitive to temperature variations
 It has more power loss

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 SY-IS-Sem 4 -Basic Power Electronics-22427
Sunil Nagare-9619015411

 RC triggering circuit

 The limited range of firing angle control in resistance trigger circuit is

overcome in RC triggering circuit.
 In this circuit, by varying the value of R, firing angle can be controlled from 0 to
180 degree
 During positive half cycle, capacitor C is charged through variable resistor R
 Whereas, it charges through D2 during negative half cycle
 Diode D1 is used to prevent the breakdown of gate to cathode junction through
D2, during the negative half cycle
 When the capacitor charges to positive voltage sufficient enough, then SCR
gets trigger.
 When SCR turn ON, its ON state voltage drop is approximately 1V. This low
voltage across SCR during turn ON period keeps capacitor C discharges in
positive half cycle until negative voltage cycle across C appears
 When value of Resistance R is high, the time taken by capacitor C to change
required voltage is more, because charging current is low. Therefore firing
angle α is more & output Vo is less

 Advantages of RC

 Circuit is simple to design & economical

 It has firing angle ranging from 0 to 180 degree
 It is less sensitive to temperature variations

 Disadvantages of RC
 It is not suitable for feedback control system
 Its firing angle is dependent on RC time constant
 There is no isolation between gate & anode circuits

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 SY-IS-Sem 4 -Basic Power Electronics-22427
Sunil Nagare-9619015411

 UJT Relaxation Oscillator

 The output pulses are line synchronized with AC supply so that the pulse get applied
to SCR during positive half cycles i.e when SCR is forward biased.
 When the supply is given, the capacitor C1 starts charging through R3 towards VS.
 Therefore, the emitter voltage VE exponentially rises with time constant = R3 C1,
as shown in the waveform.
 When the capacitor voltage (so also the emitter voltage) reaches toa level called
Peak-point voltage VP (=VON), the UJT is turned-on, the current flows from emitter
to base B1.
 Referring to the equivalent circuit of UJT, it is clear that the UJT can conduct only
when
the emitter voltage is at least equal to sum of forward volt-drop across diode and
voltage across RB1.

 At this voltage, the emitter diode gets forward biased & it conducts.
 Due to this current, the carriers are injected in the lower base B1 region of UJT
structure and its resistance RB1 is considerably reduced.
 Due to this, the capacitor discharges through emitter diode D, base resistance RB1,
external resistance R1.
 The discharging time-constant is thus (RB1+R1)C1.
 The capacitor discharges and when its voltage reaches to a level called Valley -point
voltage VV (=VOFF), the UJT is turned-off.

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 SY-IS-Sem 4 -Basic Power Electronics-22427
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 The discharging current flowing through external resistance R1 causes a pulse

voltage across it, as shown in the waveform.
 This pulse is applied to gate cathode junction of forward biased SCR to turn it on.
 As AC supply is applied in SCR circuit, the SCR is forward biased only during positive
half cycles.
 Therefore, the pulses are synchronized with AC supply such that each pulse is
produced only during positive half cycle. After receiving pulse, the SCR is turned-on
and conducts the load current till the end of that half-cycle.
 At the end of that half-cycle, the voltage and hence the load current may fall to zero &
SCR is naturally turned-off. In the next positive half cycle next pulse turns the SCR on
again and the process repeats

 Advantages of UJT

 The gate power consumption is less because UJT triggering is pulse triggering
 It has firing angle ranging from 0 to 180 degree
 There is isolation between gate & anode circuits

 Disadvantages of UJT

 It is costly than R and RC triggering circuits

 Requires more components

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 SY-IS-Sem 4 -Basic Power Electronics-22427
Sunil Nagare-9619015411

 PUT Relaxation Oscillator



 Its value is thus decided by the external resistors RB1 & RB2. It means by properly
choosing these resistors (programming), we can fix its value, hence termed as
Programmable-UJT (PUT).
 The anode is held at capacitor voltage. Initially, the capacitor voltage is zero, hence
the anode-gate junction is reverse biased and device remains off.
 As soon as the supply voltage VBB is connected to the circuit, the capacitor begins to
charge towards VBB volt. So far anode voltage is less than gate voltage, device
remains off
 When the anode voltage reaches to peak-point voltage VP, the anode voltage becomes
higher that gate voltage. The anode-gate junction is forward biased, gate current
flows, regeneration starts and device is turned on. The capacitor then discharges
through the device to valley-point voltage VV.
 During discharging of capacitor, a pulse of current flows through the cathode resistor
RK and we get pulse voltage across it, as shown in the waveform.
 At the end of discharging, the device is turned off due to very low current. The
capacitor then starts charging and the cycle repeats.
 The capacitor voltage waveform is saw-tooth in nature, whereas the voltage across
RK is in the form of pulses

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 SY-IS-Sem 4 -Basic Power Electronics-22427
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Equation for total time is given as,

T = RC

= RC

= RC

= RC )

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 SY-IS-Sem 4 -Basic Power Electronics-22427
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 Pulse Transformer

 Pulse transformers are often used to couple a trigger pulse generator to a thyristor in
order to obtain electrical isolation between the two circuits.
 The transformers commonly used for thyristor control are either 1:1 two winding or
1:1:1 three winding types.
 Figure shows a complete output circuit to fire a thyristor correctly.
 The series resistor R either reduces the SCR holding current or balances gate current
in a three winding transformer connected to two SCRs.
 The series diode D prevents reverse gate current in the case of ringing or reversal of
the pulse transformer output voltage.
 The diodes also reduce holding current of the SCR. In some cases where high noise
levels are present it may be necessary to load the secondary of the transformer with a
resistor to prevent false triggering.

Module 2.1 to 2.3 Page 8