Unit : 3 Turn On & Turn off methods of Thyristor

Turn on methods of SCR :

• Forward Voltage Triggering

• Gate Triggering
• dv/dt Triggering
• Temperature or Thermal Triggering
• Light Triggering

You may notice the word triggering in the name of SCR turn methods. In fact,
triggering itself means to bring the SCR or thyristor to ON state from its OFF state.
Now we will discuss each of the SCR turn methods one by one.

Forward Voltage Triggering

Carefully read the name of this method. It says “forward voltage triggering”. This
means we will make SCR ON by applying forward voltage across its
terminals. What does this mean? This simply means that we will make it forward
biased and will increase this bias voltage till SCR gets ON. Lets us now see how
increasing forward bias voltage make SCR ON.
n a forward biased SCR or Thyristor, junction J1 and J3 are forward biased
whereas junction J2 is reversed bias. Therefore, increasing this bias voltage will
narrow down the width of the depletion region of junction J2 and at a particular
voltage, this depletion region will vanish. At this stage, reversed biased junction J2
is said to have avalanche breakdown and this voltage is called the forward
breakover voltage. The name forward breakover voltage is given as at this voltage
the V-I characteristics of SCR breaks and shifts to its ON position. Refer the V-I
characteristics of SCR shown below.

You may notice that at forward breakover voltage VBO, the V-I curve breaks at
point M and shift to its On position N with forward breakover current IBO. This is
the reason; this critical voltage is called forward breakover voltage.

As soon as avalanche breakdown at junction J2 occurs, current starts flowing from

anode to cathode of SCR. The value of this anode current is only limited by the
load. Thus SCR is now in its conduction mode in forward direction i.e. from anode
to cathode. This is forward triggering method of turning SCR ON.

Normally this method is not used to turn on SCR as it may damage it. Generally
the forward breakover voltage is less than reverse breakdown voltage and hence
reverse breadwon voltage is considered as final voltage rating while designing
SCR. It must also be noted and bear in mind that, once avalanche breakdown take
place at junction J2, the blocking capability of J2 is lost. Therefore if anode voltage
is reduced below forward breakover voltage, the SCR will continue to conduct.
The SCR can now be turned off by bringing its anode current below a certain value
called the holding current.

Gate Triggering
Gate triggering is the method in which positive gate current is flown in forward
biased SCR to make it ON. Gate triggering is in fact the most reliable, simple and
efficient way to turn on SCR. In this method, positive gate voltage between gate
and cathode terminals are applied in forward biased SCR which establishes gate
current from gate terminal to cathode.

When positive gate current is applied, gate p layer is flooded with electrons from
the cathode (n side). This is because the cathode n layer is heavily doped as
compared to gate p layer. Since junction J1 and J3 are already forward biased, the
injected electrons in gate p layer may reach junction J2 and hence reduces the
width of depletion region. This result is reduction of forward breakover voltage. In
fact, the more the injected electrons in gate p layer, the more will be chance of
electrons reaching J2. This means the more the value of gate current, the more
will be reduction in forward breakover voltage. Thus gate current and forward
breakover voltage are inversely proportional.

Thus the SCR may be turned on by applying gate current. It should be noted that
SCR is turning on due to forward breakover voltage though this voltage is reduced
considerably due to positive gate current.

Once SCR starts conducting in forward direction, reversed bias junction J2 no

longer exists. Therefore, no gate current is required for SCR or thyristor to remain
in ON state. Therefore if gate current is removed, the conduction of current from
anode to cathode is not affected. However, if gate current is reduced to zero
before the rising of anode current to a specific value called the latching current,
the SCR or thyristor will turn off again. This means we should not make gate
current off until anode current has crossed latching current.

Once SCR or thyristor starts conductiong, gate losses its control. The SCR or
thyristor can now be turned OFF only if the anode current reaches below a
specified value of anode current. This value of anode current below which SCR
gets turned OFF is called Holding Current. As can be seen from the V-I
characteristics of SCR, the value of latching current is more than the Holding
Current.

dv/dt Triggering
dv/dt Triggering is the technique in which SCR is turned ON by changing the
forward bias voltage with respect to time. dv/dt itself means rate of change of
voltage w.r.t time.

As we have discussed earlier in this post, junction J2 is reversed biased in a

forward blocking mode of SCR. A reversed biased junction may be treated as
a capacitor due to presence of space charges in the vicinity of reversed biased
junction. Let us assume its capacitance to be ‘C’ farad. The charge on capacitor,
voltage across the capacitor and capacitance are related as below:

Q = CV

Differentiating both sides w.r.t time, we get

dQ/dt = C(dV/dt)

But current I = dQ/dt

⇒ I = C(dV/dt)

Thus the current through the reversed biased junction J2 is directly proportional
to (dv/dt). Therefore if the rate of rise of forward voltage i.e. (dv/dt) is high, the
charging current I will also be high. This charging current acts like gate current and
turns ON the SCR or thyristor even though the gate current is zero. If should be
noted that, it is rate of rise of voltage which is responsible for turning the SCR ON.
It is independent of magnitude of voltage. The voltage may be low, but the rate of
its rise should be high enough to turn SCR ON.

Temperature Triggering
Temperature triggering is also called thermal triggering. As we know that in
reversed biased junction a reverse saturation current flows whose value depends
on the temperature of the junction. This means, in forward blocking mode of SCR
or thyristor, there will be a flow of reverse saturation current across the junction
J2. This current will increase the temperature of the junction which in turn will
result in further increase in reverse leakage current. This increased leakage
current will again increase the junction temperature and hence will further
increase the reverse leakage current. Thus, this process is cumulative and will
eventually lead to vanishing of depletion region of reversed biased junction J2 at
some temperature. At this temperature, the SCR will get turn ON.

Light Triggering
In light triggering, a pulse of light of suitable wavelength guided by optical fibers is
irradiated to turn SCR ON. A recess or niche is made in the inner p layer for light
triggered SCR as shown in figure below.
When this niche is irradiated, free charge carriers i.e. electron and hole pairs are
generated. If the intensity of irradiated light is exceeds a certain value, forward
biased SCR is turned ON. Note there that, irradiated light produces free charge
carries which is just like in case of gate current. There charge carries move near
the reversed biased junction J2 and reduces the forward breakover voltage. This is
the reason, the SCR gets turned ON. The SCR which is turned ON by using light is
called Light Activated SCR or LASCR.

Thyristor Commutation Techniques

As we have studied above, a thyristor can be turned on by triggering gate terminal
with low voltage short duration pulse. But after turning on, it will conduct
continuous until the thyristor is reverse biased or the load current falls to zero.
This continuous conduction of thyristors causes problems in some applications.
The process used for turning off a thyristor is called as commutation. By the
commutation process, the thyristor operating mode is changed from forward
conducting mode to forward blocking mode. So, the thyristor commutation
methods or thyristor commutation techniques are used to turn off.

The commutation techniques of thyristors are classified into two types:

• Natural Commutation