POWER ELECTRONICS AND

INSTRUMENTATION
Module-1
Introduction: History, Power Electronic Systems, Power Electronic Converters
and Applications.
Thyristors: Static Anode-Cathode characteristics and Gate characteristics of
SCR, Turn-ON methods, Turn-OFF mechanisms, Turn-OFF Methods: Natural
and Forced Commutation – Class A and Class B types, Gate Trigger Circuit:
Resistance Firing Circuit, Resistance capacitance firing circuit, Unijunction
Transistor: Basic operation and UJT Firing Circuit.

Co-1 : Understand SCR and UJT with different triggering conditions.

Total hours -8
 INTRODUCTION TO POWER
ELECTRONICS
Power Electronics is a field which combines Power
(electric power), Electronics and Control systems.

Power engineering deals with the static and rotating

power equipment for the generation, transmission
and distribution of electric power.

Electronics deals with the study of solid state

semiconductor power devices and circuits for Power
conversion to meet the desired control objectives (to
control the output voltage and output power).
Power electronics may be defined as the applications of solid
state power semiconductor devices (Thyristors) for the control
and conversion of electric power.

P o w e r e l e c t ro n i c s d e a l s w i t h t h e s t u d y a n d d e s i g n o f
Thyristorised power controllers for variety of applications.

Heat control, Light/Illumination control, Motor control –

AC/DC motor drives used in industries, High voltage power
supplies, Vehicle propulsion systems and High voltage direct
current (HVDC) systems.
 BRIEF HISTORY OF POWER
ELECTRONICS
The first Power Electronic Device developed was the Mercury
Arc Rectifier during the year 1900.

The other Power devices like metal tank rectifier, grid controlled
vacuum tube rectifier, ignitron, phanotron, thyratron and
magnetic amplifier, were developed & used gradually for power
control applications until 1950s.

The first SCR (silicon controlled rectifier) or Thyristor was

invented and developed by Bell Lab’s in 1956 which was the first
PNPN triggering transistor.
The second electronic revolution began in the year
1958 with the development of the commercial grade
Thyristor by the General Electric Company (GE). Thus
the new era of power electronics was born.

After that many different types of power

semiconductor devices & power conversion techniques
have been introduced.

The power electronics revolution is giving us the ability

to convert, shape and control large amounts of power.
 POWER ELECTRONICS systems

• Power modulator performs following operations

– Converts electrical energy of the source as per requiredment of load
– Selects the mode of operation
– Modulates the flow of power
– During transient operation , start, break and speed reversal
Power Electronic Converters
Power Electronic Converters
Power Electronic Converters
Power Electronic Converters
Power Electronic Converters
 APPLICATIONS OF POWER
ELECTRONICS
COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS
Heating Systems Ventilating, Air Conditioners, Central Refrigeration,
Lighting, Computers and Office equipments, Uninterruptible Power
Supplies (UPS), Elevators, and Emergency Lamps.

DOMESTIC APPLICATIONS
Cooking Equipments, Lighting, Heating, Air Conditioners,
Refrigerators & Freezers, Personal Computers, Entertainment
Equipments, UPS.
INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS
Pumps, compressors, blowers and fans, Machine tools, arc furnaces,
induction furnaces, lighting control circuits, industrial lasers,
induction heating, welding equipments.

AEROSPACE APPLICATIONS
Space shuttle power supply systems, satellite power systems, aircraft
power systems.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Battery chargers, power supplies (DC and UPS), mobile cell phone
battery chargers.
TRANSPORTATION
Traction control of electric vehicles, battery chargers for electric
vehicles, electric locomotives, street cars, trolley buses, automobile
electronics including engine controls.

UTILITY SYSTEMS
High voltage DC transmission (HVDC), static VAR compensation
(SVC), Alternative energy sources (wind, photovoltaic), fuel cells,
energy storage systems, induced draft fans and boiler feed water
pumps.
 THYRISTOR CHARACTERISTICS
• A thyristor is a four layer semiconductor device of PNPN structure with three PN junctions.
• It has three terminal: anode, cathode and gate
• Thyristors are manufactured by diffusion.

Thyristor symbol & three p-n junctions

• When the anode voltage is made positive with respect to cathode, the
junctions J1 and J3 are forward biased.
• The junction J2 is reverse biased and only small leakage current flows
from anode to cathode.
• The thyristor is said to be in the forward blocking or off-state
condition and the leakage current is known as off-state current ID.

• If the anode to cathode voltage VAK is increased to a sufficiently large

value, the reverse-biased junction J2 will break.
• This is known as avalanche breakdown and the corresponding
voltage is called forward breakdown voltage VBO.
• Since the other junctions J1 and J3 are already forward biased, there
will be free movement of carriers across all the three junctions,
resulting in a large forward anode current. The device will then be in a
conducting or on-state.

• The voltage drop would be due to the ohmic drop in the four layer and
it is small, typically, 1V.

• In the on-state, the anode current is limited by external impedance or a

resistance, RL.
Static Anode- Cathode Characteristics of SCR
Static Anode- Cathode Characteristics of SCR
Static Anode- Cathode Characteristics of SCR
Static Anode- Cathode Characteristics of SCR
Static Anode- Cathode Characteristics of SCR
• The anode current must be more than a value known as latching
current IL, in order to maintain the required amount of carrier flow
across the junction; otherwise, the device will revert to the blocking
condition as the anode-to-cathode voltage is reduced.

• Latching current I L is the minimum anode current required to

maintain the thyristor in the on-state immediately after a thyristor has
been turned on and the gate signal has been removed.
• Once a thyristor conducts, it behaves like a conducting diode and
there is no control over the device.
• The device will continue to conduct because there is no depletion
layer on the junction J2 due to free movements of carriers.
• However, if the forward anode current is reduced below a level
known as the holding current I H , a depletion region will develop
around junction J 2 due to the reduced number of carrier and the
thyristor will be in the blocking state.
• Holding current I H is the minimum anode current to maintain the
thyristor in the on-state. The holding current is less than the latching
current.
• The holding current is in the order of milliamperes and is less than
the latching current IL.
Gate Characteristics of SCR

D1- Serves to limit reverse voltage applied to b/w anode and gate
D2- Prevent negative source current
D3-Blocks positive gate current coming from supply when device is forward biased
Gate Characteristics of SCR
Gate circuit parameters
Gate Characteristics of SCR
 THYRISTOR TURN-ON

• A thyristor is turned on by increasing the anode current. This can be accomplished in one of
the following ways.
1.Forward Voltage triggering
When the anode to cathode forward voltage is increased with gate circuit open reverse bias
junction J2 will have an avalanche breakdown at a voltage called forwarded breakdown
voltage VBO

2.Thermal / Temperature Triggering

• If the temperature of a thyristor is high, there will be an increase in the number of electron-
hole pairs, which would increase the leakage currents. This increase in currents would cause
1 and 2 to increase.
• Due to the regenerative action (1+2) may tend to be unity and the thyristor may turned-on.
This type of turn-on may cause thermal runaway and is normally avoided.
3. Radiation Triggering (Light triggering):
• If light is allowed to strike the junctions of a thyristor, the electron-
hole pairs will increase and the thyristor may be turned on.
• The light activated thyristors are turned on by allowing light to strike
the silicon wafers.
4.dv/dt Triggering:
C j2 dVJ 2 dC j2
ij 2 
dq2 d
dt

dt
 2 2

C j Vj 
dt
 V j2
dt
• From this equation noted that; if the rate of rise of the anode-
cathode voltage is high, the charging current of the capacitive
junction may be sufficient enough to turn on the thyristor.

• A high value of charging current may damage the thyristor and the
device must be protected against high dv/dt.

• The manufacturers specify the maximum allowable dv/dt of thyristors.

• GATE TRIGGERING
• If a thyristor is forward biased, the injection of gate current by
applying positive gate voltage between the gate and cathode
terminals would turn-on the thyristor. As the gate current is
increased, the forward blocking voltage is decreased.
 For gate triggering, a signal is applied between the gate and the
cathode of the device. Three types of signals can be used for this
purpose. They are either d.c signals, pulse signals or a.c signals.
D.C Gate Triggering
 In this type of triggering, a d.c voltage of proper magnitude and
polarity is applied between the gate and the cathode of the device in
such a way that the gate becomes positive with respect to the cathode.
 When the applied voltage is sufficient to produce the required gate
current, the device starts conducting.
Drawback
 Both the power and control circuits are d.c and there is no isolation
between the two.
 A continuous d.c signal has to be applied, at the gate causing more
gate power loss.
• A.C Gate Triggering: A.C source is most commonly used for the
gate signal in all application of thyristor control adopted for a.c
applications.
• This scheme provides the proper isolation between the power and the
control circuits.
• The firing angle control is obtained very conveniently by charging
the phase angle of the control signal.

Drawback
• A separate transformer is required to step down the a.c supply, which
adds to the cost.
Pulse Gate Triggering
• This is the most popular method for triggering the device.
• In this method, the gate drive consists of a signal pulse appearing
periodically or a sequence of high frequency pulse. This is known as
carrier frequency gating.
• A pulse transformer is used for isolation.

Advantage
• No need of applying continuous signals and hence, the gate losses
are very much reduced. Electrical isolation is also provided between
the main device supply and its gating signals.
The following points should be considered in designing the
gate control circuit:

• The gate signal should be removed after the thyristor is turned-on. A

continuous gating signal would increase the power loss in the gate
junction.

• While the thyristor is reverse biased, there should be no gate signal;

otherwise, the thyristor may fail due to an increased leakage current.

• The width of the gate pulse tG must be longer than the time required
for the anode current to rise to the holding current value I H . In
practice, the pulse width tG is normally made more than the turn-on
time ton of the thyristor.
SWITCHING CHARACTERISTICS (DYNAMIC
CHARACTERISTICS)
THYRISTOR TURN-ON CHARACTERISTICS
• Delay Time (td) This is time between the instant at which the gate
current reaches 90% of its final value and the instant at which anode
current reaches 10% of its final value.

• Rise Time (tr) is the time required for the anode current to rise from
10% of on-state current (0.1IT) to 90% of the on-state current (0.9IT).

• Spread Time (ts )- The time required for the forward blocking voltage
to fall from 0.1 to its value to the on-stage voltage drop(1 to 1.5V)

• Turn-on Time (ton) is the sum of Delay time, rise time and spread
time.
 THYRISTOR TURN OFF MECHANISM

• A thyristor which is in the on-state can be turned-off by reducing the

forward current to a level below the holding current IH.
• There are various techniques for turning off a thyristor.
• When an SCR is turned on by the gate signal, the gate loses control
over the device and the device can be brought back to the blocking
state only by reducing the forward current to a level below that of
the holding current.
• In AC circuits, however, the current goes through a natural zero value
and the device will automatically switch off.
• But in DC circuits, where no neutral zero value of current exists, the
forward current is reduced by applying a reverse voltage across
anode and cathode and thus forcing the current through the SCR to
zero.
THYRISTOR TURN OFF Mechanism
 THYRISTOR TURN OFF METHODS

 Natural Communication

 Forced Communication
 GATE TRIGGERING METHODS

The different methods of gate triggering are the

following:

1. R-triggering
2. RC triggering
3. UJT triggering
• Simple method for varying the trigger angle and therefore, the power
in the load.
• SCR gate current is supplied by an a.c source of voltage es through
Rmin ,Rv and the series diode D.

OPERATION
• As es goes positive, the SCR becomes forward biased from anode to
cathode; however, it will not conduct (eL =0) until its gate current
exceeds Ig(min)
• The positive e s also forward biases the diode and the SCRs gate
cathode junction; this causes flow of a gate current ig
• Gate current will increase as es increases towards its peak value.
• When ig reaches a value equal to Ig(min) , the SCR turns ON and eL
will approximately equal es (refer to point P on the waveform)

• SCR remains ON and eL≈es until es decreases to the point where the
load current is below the SCR holding current. This usually occurs
very close to the point until es =0 and begins to go negative.

• SCR now turns off and remains off while es goes negative since its
anode cathode is reverse biased and since the SCR is now an open
switch, the load voltage is zero during this period.

• Purpose of the diode in the gate circuit is to prevent the gate cathode
reverse bias from exceeding peak reverse gate voltage during the
negative half cycle of es.
• Diode is chosen to have peak reverse voltage rating greater than the
input voltage Emax.

• Load voltage waveform can be controlled by varying Rv which varies

the resistance in the gate circuit.

• If Rv is increased, the gate current will reach its trigger value Ig(min) at
a greater value of es making the SCR to trigger at latter point in the es
positive half cycle. The trigger angle α will increase.

• If R v is made large enough the SCR gate current will never reach
Ig(min) and the SCR will remain OFF. The minimum trigger angle is
obtained with Rv equal to zero.
• Limiting resistor Rmin is placed between anode and gate
so that the peak gate current of the thyristor Igm is not
exceeded.

• When supply voltage has reached its peak, Emax

Emax
Rmin 
I gm
• Stabilizing resistor R b should have such a value that
the maximum voltage drop across it does not exceed
maximum possible gate voltage Vg(max)

Rv  Rmin Vg (max)

Rb 
E max  Vg (max) 
• Thyristor will trigger when the instantaneous voltage es
is
es  I g (min) Rv  Rmin   Vd  Vg (min)

• Advantage of R trigger circuit is that its simplest and

most economical.

• Disadvantages
1. Trigger angle α is greatly dependent on the SCR’s
I g(min) , which depend on the type of SCR and high
temperature dependent.
2. Load voltage waveform can only varied from 0 to
90degree.
• By the RC network, a larger variation in the value of the
firing angle can be obtained by changing the phase and
amplitude of the gate current.

• By varying the resistor R v , the firing angle can be

controlled from 0 to 180degree.

• In the negative half cycle, capacitor C charges through

diode D2 with lower plate positive to the peak to the
peak supply voltage Emax .

• Capacitor voltage remains constant at –E max until

supply voltage attains zero value.
• As the SCR anode voltage passes through zero and
becomes positive, capacitor C begins to charge through
Rv from initial voltage –Emax.

• When the capacitor charges to positive voltage equal to

gate trigger voltage Vgt ( Vg (min)  VD1 ) , the SCR is
triggered and after this, the capacitor holds to a small
positive voltage as shown below.
• During negative half cycle, the diode D1 prevents the
breakdown of the gate to cathode junction.

• For power frequency range, the RC for zero output

voltage is given by, 1.3T 4
Rv C  
2 

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

• Thus thyristor will turn ON when the capacitor

voltage , provided the gate current
Ig(min) is available.
es  Vg (min)  VD1 
• Maximum value of Rv is given by,

es  I g (min) Rv  ec

 I g (min) Rv  Vg (min)  VD1

es  Vg (min)  VD1
Rv 
I g (min)

• es instantaneous supply voltage at which the thyristor will turn

on.
• In RC half wave trigger circuit power can be delivered
to the load only during the positive half cycle of e s
because the SCR conducts only when it is forward
biased.

• The ac line voltage is converted onto pulsating dc by

the full wave diode bridge.

• SCR turn ON for both half cycle of the line voltage,

which doubles the available power to the load.

• Initial voltage from which capacitor C charges is almost

zero.
 UJT
• UJT is highly efficient switch. The switching times is in the range of
nanoseconds.
• Since UJT exhibits negative resistance characteristics it can be used as
relaxation oscillator.
• The circuit diagram is as shown with R1 and R2 being small compared
to RB1 and RB2 of UJT.
• When VBB is applied, capacitor ‘C’ begins to charge through resistor
‘R’ exponentially towards VBB.
• During this charging emitter circuit of UJT is an open circuit. The rate
of charging is  1  RC
• When this capacitor voltage which is nothing but emitter voltage VE
reaches the peak point V P  V BB  V D, the emitter base junction is
forward biased and UJT turns on.
 B2 B2

Eta-point +
B2
RB2
Eta-point
RB2
p-type
E
E A A VBB
E +
RB1
n-type RB1
Ve Ie VBB

- -
B1 B1 B1
(a) (b) (c)

Fig (a) Basic structure of UJT (b) Symbolic representation

(c) Equivalent circuit
 Negative Resistance
Region
V
Cutoff e Saturation
region region
VBB
R load line
Vp
Peak Point

Valley Point

Vv

0 Ip Iv Ie

V-I Characteristic of UJT

• Capacitor ‘C’ rapidly discharges through load resistance R1 with time
constant
 2  R1C  2   1 

• When emitter voltage decreases to valley point Vv, UJT turns off.
• Once again the capacitor will charge towards V BB and the cycle
continues.
• The rate of charging of the capacitor will be determined by the
resistor R in the circuit.
• If R is small the capacitor charges faster towards VBB and thus reaches
faster and the SCR is triggered at a smaller firing angle.
• If R is large the capacitor takes a longer time to charge towards Vp the
firing angle is delayed.
Advantages of UJT
• It is a Low cost device
• It has excellent characteristics
• It is a low-power absorbing device under
normal operating conditions
UJT as an SCR trigger
Ramp triggering