Thyristor manufacturers generally specify a region of safe firing defining acceptable levels of voltage

and current for a given operating temperature. The boundary of this region is partly determined by
the requirement that the maximum permissible gate power (PG), specified for a given trigger pulse
duration, is not exceeded.[7]

As well as the usual failure modes due to exceeding voltage, current or power ratings, thyristors
have their own particular modes of failure, including:

Turn on di/dt in which the rate of rise of on-state current after triggering is higher than
can be supported by the spreading speed of the active conduction area (SCRs & triacs).

Forced commutation in which the transient peak reverse recovery current causes such a
high voltage drop in the sub-cathode region that it exceeds the reverse breakdown voltage of the
gate cathode diode junction (SCRs only).

Switch on dv/dt the thyristor can be spuriously fired without trigger from the gate if the
anode-to-cathode voltage rise-rate is too great.