3EC41: Power Electronics

Gate Triggering Circuit

Reference book: Power Electronics by
M D Singh And K B Khanchandani
 Gate Triggering Circuit

• The basic requirements for the successful firing of

a thyristor are that the current supplied to the
gate should:
• Be of adequate amplitude and sufficiently short
rise time
• Be of adequate duration
• Occur at a time when the main circuit conditions
are favourable to conduction.
• Important devices for isolation are pulse
transformer and opto-isolator.
 Pulse Transformer
• A pulse transformer is also known as trigger transformer,
gate drive transformer, gate transformer, signal transformer
(or) wideband transformer in some applications, a.
• The main function of this transformer is to transmit voltage
pulses between windings and the load.
• These transformers are used for galvanic isolation (signal
transmission), low-power control circuits, & the major
components used in high-power SMPS.
• By using this transformer, amplitude in the voltage pulse
can be changed; the polarity of the pulse can be inverted,
coupling different stages in the pulse amplifier and an
isolation transformer.
 What is a Pulse Transformer?

• Definition: A transformer that is enhanced to

produce electrical pulses with high velocity, as
well as stable amplitude, is known as a pulse
transformer.
• These are regularly employed while transmitting
digital information as well as in transistors,
mainly in gate drive circuits.
The perfect transformer must have galvanic
isolation and distributed capacitance.
• For the circuit protection, capacitance with low
coupling is also vital to defend the circuit.
Figure- Pulse Transfomer
Triggerring circuit with PT
 Pulse Transformer
• The above figure shows the transformer in a toroidal shape. It
includes two windings namely primary and secondary.
• Every winding includes an equal number of revolves so any
winding from these can work like primary otherwise
secondary.
• The pulse to SCR can be given through 1:1 otherwise 1:1:1
pulse transformer and pulse to the continuous SCR can be
given through the 3-winding transformer.
• In the above figure, the series resistor (R) is to stop the
holding current of the silicon controlled rectifier.
• The main function of the diode in the circuit is to avoid gate
current which is reversing.
• The pulse transformer of 1:1:1 is mainly used to produce a
pulse for continuous SCR.
 Optical Isolators
(Opto-isolators)
• An opto-isolator (also called an optocoupler,
photocoupler, or optical isolator) is an electronic
component that transfers electrical signals between
two isolated circuits by using light.
• Opto-isolators prevent high voltages from affecting
the system receiving the signal.
• But we can also provide electrical isolation between
an input source and an output load using just light
by using a very common and valuable electronic
component called an Optocoupler.
 Optical Isolators
• The basic design of an optocoupler, also
known as an Opto-isolator, consists of an LED
that produces infra-red light and a
semiconductor photo-sensitive device that is
used to detect the emitted infra-red beam.
• Both the LED and photo-sensitive device are
enclosed in a light-tight body or package with
metal legs for the electrical connections as
shown.
 Optical Isolators
• An optocoupler or opto-isolator consists of a
light emitter, the LED and a light sensitive
receiver which can be a single photo-diode,
photo-transistor, photo-resistor, photo-SCR, or
a photo-TRIAC with the basic operation of an
optocoupler being very simple to understand.
Photo transistor optocoupler
 Photo transistor optocoupler
• Assume a photo-transistor device as shown. Current from
the source signal passes through the input LED which emits
an infra-red light whose intensity is proportional to the
electrical signal.
• This emitted light falls upon the base of the photo-
transistor, causing it to switch-ON and conduct in a similar
way to a normal bipolar transistor.
• The base connection of the photo-transistor can be left
open (unconnected) for maximum sensitivity to the LEDs
infra-red light energy or connected to ground via a suitable
external high value resistor to control the switching
sensitivity making it more stable and resistant to false
triggering by external electrical noise or voltage transients.
 Photo transistor optocoupler
• When the current flowing through the LED is interrupted,
the infra-red emitted light is cut-off, causing the photo-
transistor to cease conducting. The photo-transistor can be
used to switch current in the output circuit. The spectral
response of the LED and the photo-sensitive device are
closely matched being separated by a transparent medium
such as glass, plastic or air. Since there is no direct electrical
connection between the input and output of an
optocoupler, electrical isolation up to 10kV is achieved.
• Optocouplers are available in four general types, each one
having an infra-red LED source but with different photo-
sensitive devices. The four optocouplers are called
the: Photo-transistor, Photo-darlington, Photo-
SCR and Photo-triac as shown below.
Opto-coupler types
 Opto-coupler types
• The photo-transistor and photo-darlington devices are mainly
for use in DC circuits while the photo-SCR and photo-triac
allow AC powered circuits to be controlled. There are many
other kinds of source-sensor combinations, such as LED-
photodiode, LED-LASER, lamp-photoresistor pairs, reflective
and slotted optocouplers.
• Simple home made opto-couplers can be constructed by
using individual components. An Led and a photo-transistor
are inserted into a rigid plastic tube or encased in heat-
shrinkable tubing.
• The advantage of this home-made optocoupler is that tubing
can be cut to any length you want and even bent around
corners. Obviously, tubing with a reflective inner would be
more efficient than dark black tubing.
 SCR Firing Circuits

• As we have seen in above that out of various

triggering methods to turn the SCR, gate
triggering is the most efficient and reliable
method.
• Most of the control applications use this type
of triggering because the desired instant of
SCR turning is possible with gate triggering
method.
• Let us look on various firing circuits of SCR.
 Resistance Firing Circuit
• The circuit below shows the resistance triggering of SCR
where it is employed to drive the load from the input
AC supply.
• Resistance and diode combination circuit acts as a gate
control circuitry to switch the SCR in the desired
condition.
• As the positive voltage applied, the SCR is forward
biased and doesn’t conduct until its gate current is
more than minimum gate current of the SCR.
• When the gate current is applied by varying the
resistance Rv such that the gate current should be more
than the minimum value of gate current, the SCR is
turned ON.
 Resistance Firing Circuit
• And hence the load current starts flowing
through the SCR.
• The SCR remains ON until the anode current is
equal to the holding current of the SCR.
• And it will switch OFF when the voltage applied is
zero. So the load current is zero as the SCR acts as
open switch.
• The diode protects the gate drive circuit from
reverse gate voltage during the negative half
cycle of the input.
 Figure-Resistance Firing Circuit

• And Resistance Rmin limits the current flowing through

the gate terminal and its value is such that the gate
current should not exceed the maximum gate current.
• It is the simplest and economical type of triggering
but limited for few applications due to its
disadvantages.
• In this, the triggering angle is limited to 90 degrees
only.
• Because the applied voltage is maximum at 90
degrees so the gate current has to reach minimum
gate current value somewhere between zero to 90
degrees.
Resistance Firing Circuit
Waveform of Resistance Firing Circuit
 Resistance Firing Circuit
• Limiting resistance Rmin can be calculated as

• Stabilised resistor Rb shoud have such value

that the maximum voltage drop across it does
not exceed maximum possible gate voltage
Vgmax. From the voltage distribution,
 Resistance Firing Circuit
• The thyristor will trigger when the
instantaneous anode voltage es, is

• Where Igmin = minimum gate current to

trigger the thyristor
• Vd= voltage drop across the diode
• Vgmin = gate voltage to trigger corresponding
to Igmin.
 Resistance – Capacitance (RC) Firing
Circuit
Draw RC half wave trigger for one SCR and discuss the function of the various
components used. Describe with help of waveforms how the output voltage is
controlled by varying the resistance.
• The limitation of resistance firing circuit can be
overcome by the RC triggering circuit which
provides the firing angle control from 0 to 180
degrees.
• By changing the phase and amplitude of the gate
current, a large variation of firing angle is obtained
using this circuit.
• Below figure shows the RC triggering circuit
consisting of two diodes with an RC network
connected to turn the SCR.
 RC Firing Circuit(Half Wave)
• By varying the variable resistance Rv, triggering or
firing angle is controlled in a full positive half
cycle of the input signal.
• During the negative half cycle of the input signal,
capacitor charges with lower plate positive
through diode D2 up to the maximum supply
voltage Vmax.
• This voltage remains at -Vmax across the
capacitor till supply voltage attains zero crossing.
Figure(a)- RC Firing Circuit
Figure(b)- Waveform of RC Firing
Circuit
 RC Firing Circuit
• During the positive half cycle of the input, the SCR
becomes forward biased and the capacitor starts
charging through variable resistance to the triggering
voltage value of the SCR.
• When the capacitor charging voltage is equal to the gate
trigger voltage, SCR is turned ON and the capacitor
holds a small voltage.
• Therefore the capacitor voltage is helpful for triggering
the SCR even after 90 degrees of the input waveform.
• In this, diode D1 prevents the negative voltage between
the gate and cathode during the negative half cycle of
the input through diode D2.
 RC Firing Circuit
• In the range of power frequencies, the RvC for
zero output voltage is given by

Where T= 1/f = period of ac line frequency in

seconds.
• As discussed above, the thyristor will turn ON
when the capacitor voltage ec equals (Vgmin +
VD1), provided the gate current Igmin is available.
Therefor the maximum value of Rv is given by
 RC Firing Circuit

Where es instantaneous supply voltage at which the

Thyristor will turn ON. We can find the value of Rv
and C can be obtained
 Resistance Capacitance Triggering
(Full Wave)
• A simple circuit giving full wave output is shown in
figure below.
• Here a.c. line voltage is converted to pulsating d.c.
voltage by full wave diode bridge.
• This allows the SCR to be trigger “ ON” for both half
cycle of line voltage, which doubles the available power
to the load.
• In this circuit the initial voltage from which the
capacitor ‘C’ charges is essentially zero.
• The capacitor ‘C’ is set to this low voltage( upper plate
positive ) by the clamping action of the thyristor gate.
 Resistance Capacitance Triggering
(Full Wave)
• When capacitor charges to a voltage equal to
Vgt , SCR triggers and rectified voltage Edc
appears across the load as eL
• For this reason the charging time constant RvC
must be chosen longer than for half wave RC
circuit in order to delay the triggering.
• The RC value is empirically chosen as
 Resistance Capacitance Triggering
(Full Wave)
• The value of Rv is
Figure- Circuit Daigram of Resistance
Capacitance Triggering (Full Wave)
 Figure- Waveform of Resistance
Capacitance Triggering (Full Wave)
 UNIJUNCTION TRANSISTOR
What is UJT? Explain working and V-I characteristics of UJT. Also discuss
UJT as a relaxation oscillator with diagram and waveforms.
• The Unijunction Transistor or UJT for short, is
another solid state three terminal device that
can be used in gate pulse, timing circuits and
trigger generator applications to switch and
control either thyristors and TRIAC’s for AC
power control type applications.
Basic operation of UJT
 Construction of UJT
• Like diodes, unijunction transistors are constructed
from separate P-type and N-type semiconductor
materials forming a single (hence its name Uni-
Junction) PN-junction within the main conducting N-
type channel of the device.
• Although the Unijunction Transistor has the name of a
transistor, its switching characteristics are very different
from those of a conventional bipolar or field effect
transistor as it can not be used to amplify a signal but
instead is used as a ON-OFF switching transistor.
• UJT’s have unidirectional conductivity and negative
impedance characteristics acting more like a variable
voltage divider during breakdown
 Construction of UJT
• UJT consists of a single solid piece of N-type
semiconductor material forming the main current
carrying channel with its two outer connections
marked as Base 2 ( B2 ) and Base 1 ( B1 ).
• The third connection, confusingly marked as
the Emitter ( E ) is located along the channel.
• The emitter terminal is represented by an arrow
pointing from the P-type emitter to the N-type
base.
 Construction of UJT
• The Emitter rectifying p-n junction of the unijunction
transistor is formed by fusing the P-type material
into the N-type silicon channel.
• However, P-channel UJT’s with an N-type Emitter
terminal are also available but these are little used.
• The Emitter junction is positioned along the channel
so that it is closer to terminal B2 than B1.
• An arrow is used in the UJT symbol which points
towards the base indicating that the Emitter
terminal is positive and the silicon bar is negative
material.
 Construction of UJT
• We can see from the equivalent circuit above, that
the N-type channel basically consists of two
resistors RB2 and RB1 in series with an equivalent
(ideal) diode, D representing the p-n junction
connected to their center point.
• This Emitter p-n junction is fixed in position along
the ohmic channel during manufacture and can
therefore not be changed.
• Resistance RB1 is given between the Emitter, E and
terminal B1, while resistance RB2 is given between
the Emitter, E and terminal B2.
 Construction of UJT

• As the physical position of the p-n junction is closer to

terminal B2 than B1 the resistive value of RB2 will be less
than RB1.
• The total resistance of the silicon bar (its Ohmic
resistance) will be dependent upon the semiconductors
actual doping level as well as the physical dimensions
of the N-type silicon channel but can be represented
by RBB.
• If measured with an ohmmeter, this static resistance
would typically measure somewhere between about
4kΩ and 10kΩ’s for most common UJT’s such as the
2N1671, 2N2646 or the 2N2647.
 Construction of UJT
• These two series resistances produce a voltage divider
network between the two base terminals of the unijunction
transistor and since this channel stretches from B2 to B1,
when a voltage is applied across the device, the potential at
any point along the channel will be in proportion to its
position between terminals B2 and B1.
• The level of the voltage gradient therefore depends upon the
amount of supply voltage.
• When used in a circuit, terminal B1 is connected to ground
and the Emitter serves as the input to the device. Suppose a
voltage VBB is applied across the UJT between B2 and B1 so
that B2 is biased positive relative to B1.
 Working of UJT
• With zero Emitter input applied, the voltage
developed across RB1 (the lower resistance) of
the resistive voltage divider can be calculated
as:
 Working of UJT
• For a unijunction transistor, the resistive ratio
of RB1 to RBB shown above is called the intrinsic stand-
off ratio and is given the Greek symbol: η (eta).
• Typical standard values of η range from 0.5 to 0.8 for
most common UJT’s.
• If a small positive input voltage which is less than the
voltage developed across resistance, RB1 ( ηVBB ) is
now applied to the Emitter input terminal, the diode
p-n junction is reverse biased, thus offering a very
high impedance and the device does not conduct.
• The UJT is switched “OFF” and zero current flows.
 Working of UJT
• However, when the Emitter input voltage is increased
and becomes greater than VRB1 (or ηVBB + 0.7V, where
0.7V equals the p-n junction diode volt drop) the p-n
junction becomes forward biased and the unijunction
transistor begins to conduct.

• When VE= Vp, the emitter current equals Ip.

• At this point , holes from heavily dropped emitter are
injected into the N bar, spcially in to the B1 region.
• The bar is lightly dropped, offers very little chance for
these holes to recombine.
 Characteristics of UJT
• As such the lower half of the bar becomes
replete with additional current carries (holes)
and its resistance RB1 is drastically reduced
• The result is that Emitter current, ηIE now
flows from the Emitter into the Base region.
• The effect of the additional Emitter current
flowing into the Base reduces the resistive
portion of the channel between the Emitter
junction and the B1 terminal.
Normal UJT biasing
Working of UJT
 Characteristics of UJT
• This reduction in the value of RB1 resistance to a very low
value means that the Emitter junction becomes even more
forward biased resulting in a larger current flow.
• When this regenerative process or snowbolling process ends,
RB1 has dropped very small value (2-25 ohms) and IE can
become very large, limited mainly external resistance RE
• The effect of this results in a negative resistance at the
Emitter terminal.
• Likewise, if the input voltage applied between the Emitter
and B1 terminal decreases to a value below breakdown, the
resistive value of RB1 increases to a high value.
• Then the Unijunction Transistor can be thought of as a
voltage breakdown device.
 Characteristics of UJT
• So we can see that the resistance presented by RB1 is
variable and is dependant on the value of Emitter
current, IE.
• Then forward biasing the Emitter junction with respect
to B1 causes more current to flow which reduces the
resistance between the Emitter, E and B1.
• In other words, the flow of current into the UJT’s
Emitter causes the resistive value of RB1 to decrease
and the voltage drop across it, VRB1 must also decrease,
allowing more current to flow producing a negative
resistance condition.
Characteristic of UJT
 Characteristic of UJT
• The static emitter char-acteristic (a curve
showing the relation between emitter voltage
VE and emitter current IE) of a UJT at a given
inter base voltage VBB is shown in figure. From
figure it is noted that for emitter potentials to
the left of peak point, emitter current IE never
exceeds IEo . The current IEo corresponds very
closely to the reverse leakage current ICo of
the conventional BJT.
 Characteristic of UJT
• This region, as shown in the figure, is called the
cut-off region. Once conduction is established at
VE = VP the emitter potential VE starts decreasing
with the increase in emitter current IE.
• This Corresponds exactly with the decrease in
resistance RB for increasing current IE.
• This device, therefore, has a negative resistance
region which is stable enough to be used with a
great deal of reliability in the areas of
applications listed earlier.
 Characteristic of UJT
• Eventually, the valley point reaches, and any
further increase in emitter current IE places the
device in the saturation region, as shown in the
figure.
• Three other important parameters for the UJT are
IP, VV and IV and are defined below:
• Peak-Point Emitter Current. Ip. It is the emitter
current at the peak point.
• It represents the minimum current that is required
to trigger the device (UJT).
• It is inversely proportional to the interbase voltage
VBB.
 Characteristic of UJT
• Valley Point Voltage VV The valley point
voltage is the emitter voltage at the valley
point.
• The valley voltage increases with the increase
in interbase voltage VBB.
• Valley Point Current IV The valley point current
is the emitter current at the valley point.
• It increases with the increase in inter-base
voltage VBB.
 Characteristic of UJT
• When IE is decrease below Iv, the UJT turns
off and its operation rapidly switches back to
the off region of its VE-IE curve.
 Special Features of UJT
• Special Features of UJT. The special features
of a UJT are :
• A stable triggering voltage (VP)— a fixed
fraction of applied inter base voltage VBB.
• A very low value of triggering current.
• A high pulse current capability.
• A negative resistance characteristic.
• Low cost.
 UJT Firing Circuit

• It is the most common method of triggering the SCR

because the prolonged pulses at the gate using R and
RC triggering methods cause more power dissipation at
the gate so by using UJT (Uni Junction Transistor) as
triggering device the power loss is limited as it produce
a train of pulses.
• The RC network is connected to the emitter terminal of
the UJT which forms the timing circuit.
• The capacitor is fixed while the resistance is variable
and hence the charging rate of the capacitor depends
on the variable resistance means that the controlling of
the RC time constant.
 UJT Firing Circuit
• When the voltage is applied, the capacitor starts
charging through the variable resistance.
• By varying the resistance value voltage across the
capacitor get varied.
• Once the capacitor voltage is equal to the peak value of
the UJT, it starts conducting and hence produce a pulse
output till the voltage across the capacitor equal to the
valley voltage Vv of the UJT.
• This process repeats and produces a train of pulses at
base terminal 1.
• The pulse output at the base terminal 1 is used to turn
ON the SCR at predetermined time intervals.
 Unijunction Transistor Applications

• Relaxation oscillators.
• Switching Thyristors like SCR, TRIAC etc.
• Magnetic flux sensors.
• Voltage or current limiting circuit.
• Bistable oscillators.
• Voltage or current regulators.
• Phase control circuits.
Unijunction Transistor Relaxation
Oscillator
 Unijunction Transistor Relaxation
Oscillator
• Capacitor in starting is at zero voltage (Vc=0)
and switch suddenly closed at t=0 applying
Edc to the circuit.
• Since VE = VC= 0, the UJT emitter diode in
reverse biased and the UJT is OFF.
• The amount of reverse bias is Vx volts which
can be obtained using the voltage divider
rule:
 Unijunction Transistor Relaxation
Oscillator
• In many cases R1 and R2 are much smaller than
RB1 and RB2, and Vx becomes approximately equal
to ȠEdc.
• In this condition the only emitter current flowing
will be small–reverse–leakage, IEO.
• Also, RB1 will be at its “off” value (typically 4 kilo
ohms).
• Thus we can consider the emitter to be open IE=0
and capacitor will begin to charge toward the
input voltage Edc through register R.
 Unijunction Transistor Relaxation
Oscillator
• Capacitor voltage increase as shown in figure.
 Unijunction Transistor Relaxation
Oscillator
• It will continue to increase untill the voltage at the
emitter reaches the peak value Vp1 given by equation.
• At this time diode becomes forward biased and UJT turns
‘on’ with RB1dropping to a very low value (typically 10
ohms).
• Since diode now in forward biased, capacitor will
discharge through the low-resistance path containing the
diode, RB1and R1.
• The capacitor discharge is short time constant normally
very short compare to its charging time constant(see in
figure).
• The discharging capacitor provides the emitter current
needed to keep the UJT ‘on’ untill IE drops to below valley
current Iv, at which time the UJT will turn ‘off’.
 Unijunction Transistor Relaxation
Oscillator
• This time occurs at time T2 when the capacitor
voltage has dropped to the valley voltage
Vv(typically 2-3 volts).
• At this time RB1 returns to its ‘off’ value, the diode
is again reverse-biased and IE = 0.
• The capacitor will begin charging towards Edc
once again the previous chain is of events will
repeat itself indefinitely as long as power to the
applied to the circuit.
• This result is a periodic saw tooth type waveform
shown in figure.
Figure- saw tooth type waveform
 Calculate the frequency
• To calculate the frequency of this waveform,
first calculate the period of one cycle.
• The length one period, T1, is essentially the
time it takes for the capacitor to charge to Vp
since the discharge time T2 is usually relatively
short .
• Thus T = T1 and given by
 Calculate the frequency
In most cases, Vp = Ƞ Edc + VD and the period
and be written as

The small diode drop VD can often be ignored if Edc > 10

V, resulting in the more approximate expression,
 Varying the frequency
• The frquency of oscillations is normally
controlled by varying the charging time
constant RC.
• Therefore are, however, limits on R.
• These limits are:
 Varying the frequency
• Keeping R between the these limits will ensure
oscillations.
• If R greater than Rmax, the capacitor never
reaches Vp since the current through R is not
large enough to both charge the capacitor and
supply Ip to the UJT.
• If R smaller than Rmin, the capacitor will reach Vp
and discharge through the UJT , but never turn
‘off’ since the current through R is greater than
the Iv needed to hold the UJT “on”
Varying the frequency
The UJT as an SCR Trigger
Syncronised UJT-Triggering(Ramp
Triggering)
Waveform of Syncronised UJT-
Triggering(Ramp Triggering)
Example
Solution of example
Solution of example
 Microprocessor interfacing to power
thyristor
• Microprocessor or microcontroller are used to
control the firing angle of the thyristors.
• In order to design gate interface circuit, both
the logic and thyristor gate requirements must
be specified.
• Microprocessor used here has the following
specifications:
 Microprocessor interfacing to power
thyristor
• Microprocessor can not directly drive the
power thyristor. Here p-channel MOSFET is
used. The specificatin of MOSFET are:

According to that design resistance Rg, Rgk and

Rsg.
Microprocessor interfacing to power
thyristor