CHAPTER -15

SILICON CONTROLLED RECTIFIERS

15.1 The silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) is multilayered semiconductor device consisting of 2 P-type materials alternated with 2 N-type , materials. The device is called a rectifier because it has a forward direction that has low resistance and thus passes current, and, a reverse direction that has a high resistance and blocks , current. The forward direction is not always a low resistance, but rather under the control of a turn on gate. The controlled rectifier is not always used to perform the usual rectifier functions. Applications making use of the controlling feature have been developed to make fullest use of its capabilities. 15.2 The actual internal working of the SCR is somewhat involved and only a simplified explanation will be given. The basic internal construction is shown in fig. A. The SCR has three leads which are called the anode, the cathode, and the gate. The anode is attached to a P-type material which in turn forms the anode junction with an N-type material . These two layers are denoted by P2 and N1. The N1 layer also forms a junction called the control junction, with another layer of P-type material. This layer is labelled P1 in the fig. has the gate lead attached to it. The P 1 layer in turn forms the so-called cathode junction with an N-type material which has the cathode attached to it. The last layer is labelled N2 in the figure.

The external signals are applied to the SCR as shown in fig.B. Because of the polarity of the external power supply connected between the anode and cathode, the anode and cathode junctions are forward biased, while the control junction is reverse biased. A positive trigger applied to the gate terminal will cause the cathode junction to pass current. Tile control junction earl then be thought of as connected to the cathode through the low resistance of the cathode junction. The forward biased anode junction then passes current, and the whole device from anode to cathode is a low resistance and passes current early. Note that before the positive trigger was applied to the gate, there was no current between the anode and cathode because of the reverse biased control junction. 15.3 The schematic symbol for the SCR is shown in fig. It is very similar to a regular diode with the important addition of the gate lead that actually controls when the SCR will pass current. 15.4 The voltage current characteristics of the SCR can be described with the help of an equivalent circuit. This equivalent circuit consists of an NPN and PNP transistor connected together as shown in Fig. It should however be remembered that this is not what is really inside the SCR, but rather an equivalent circuit, for explanatory purpose only. Referring to the Fig. in the absence of any signal qt the gate, both transistors are off, since the base current for each has to pass through the other transistor. This is an important point. The trigger at the gate is necessary to initiate action, but once current starts between the anode and. cathode, it will continue even after the trigger has

been removed. However, if the anode to cathode current is interrupted, the SCR reverts to the blocking condition and has to be triggered again.

15.5 Fig. shows a typical SCR characteristic curve. If the anode, to cathode is reverse biased, the device behaves like a regular diode. In the forward biased condition, there is very little current until the gate trigger is applied. Note then how rapidly the forward current increases. This implies a need for' current limiting ' device when it is fired(triggered). The forward characteristics actually consist of two conditions. The first condition is when the SCR is off, there is, very little current. The second condition is when the SCR is on, a relatively large current occurs and the voltage drop across the SCR is small.

15.6 A basic application of the SCR is shown in Fig. In this circuit the SCR is placed in series with a relay coil. When switch is closed, the relay will not be energized, until the time delay circuit supplies a trigger to the SCR. One application of this is to allow the filaments of the type in the time delay circuit to warm up before applying the high voltage. The time delay circuit would then determine the warm up period.

15.7 Ail interesting application of the SCR is the voltage regulator circuit shown in figure. The circuit is not complete as drawn but it does show the function of the SCRs. SCR1, SCR2, CR1, and

CR2 form a bridge rectifier circuit. The box labelled "sensing and timing circuit pulses the SCRs so that the one that is forward biased by the a-c signal will be brought into conduction at the point in the ac cycle which will give the desired d-c output. The output voltage is sensed by the sensing circuit which then applies a trigger to the gate of the SCRs to cause the appropriate one to conduct at just the right time if the output voltage is either too low or too high the sensing circuit will apply the trigger to the SCR at a time so that more or less of the input signal is delivered to the load. The time that the SCRs are 'ON' is called the conduction angle. Wave shapes illustrating the typical situation are also shown. Thepoint to notice is that the sensing and timing circuit controls the conduction angle, which in turn will control the output voltage. In this particular application, the SCR performs the function of a rectifier for a period of time determined by the output voltage.