UNIT I-Chapter 2: POWER ELECTRONICS

Introduction
The branch of Electronics which deals with deals with the control of power at 50 Hz is called Power Electronics.
For Fine control over the flow of power semiconductor switching devices are used
e.g. SCR, Triac, Diac, UJT

DIAC (diode for alternating current)

It is a 2 terminal, 3 layer bidirectional device which can be switched from its OFF state to ON state for either
polarity of applied voltage.
DIAC Construction:
DIAC can be in NPN or PNP form.
Types
1) NPN
2) PNP
The 2 leads are connected to P regions of Silicon separated by an N region as shown in diagram. The structure is
very much similar to that of transistor. Following are differences in construction of DIAC & Transistor.
1) No terminal taken from base layer
2) 3 regions are identical in size
3) 3 regions are equally doped

DIAC OPERATION
 When battery is connected to DIAC, One PN junction is forward biased & other is reverse biased.
 When we go on increasing the voltage & when the applied voltage crosses breakover voltage then the
reverse biased junction break down & the DIAC starts conducting.
 When DIAC starts conducting voltage drops & current increases.
 If the polarity of battery is reversed again 1 junction is forward biased & other is reverse biased so same
operation repeats.
 As DIAC operation is same for any polarity of battery it is called Bidirectional Device.

DIAC CHARACTERISTICS

 V-I characteristics of a DIAC looks like a letter Z due to symmetrical switching characteristics for each
polarity of the applied voltage.
 Small amount of leakage current flows till
 The DIAC acts like an open-circuit till the breakover voltage is reached.
 After breakover voltage it shows negative resistance characteristic i.e. voltage decreases & current increases
 Symmetric characteristics are for reverse polarity of applied voltage.
 DIAC CHARACTERISTICS

APPLICATIONS OF DIAC
 Triac triggering circuit
 It can be used in the lamp dimmer circuit.
 It is used in the heat control circuit.
 It is used in the speed control of a universal motor.

UNIJUNCTION TRANSISTOR (UJT)

 It is a 3 terminal semiconductor switching device.

 It consists of N-type silicon bar with the electrical connection on each end.
 The 2 terminals from N region are called base-1 (B1) & base-2 (B2).
 P type semiconductor is diffused in N type bar near the base- 2. It forms P-N junction.
 The terminal taken out from P region is called emitter.
 As only 1 junction & 3 terminals – name unijunction Transistor.
 The emitter region is heavily doped & N region is lightly doped.
 With 1 PN junction the device is form of diode so also called double based diode.
 The resistance between Emitter & B1 is greater than between B2 & emitter because emitter is nearer to B2
than B1.
OPERATION OF UNIJUNCTION TRANSISTOR (UJT)
 MODE 1
 If Voltage VBB applied between B2 & B1 with emitter open. Small amount of current flows in circuit but no
emitter current.

MODE I MODE 2

MODE 3
 MODE 2
 If positive voltage applied at emitter as shown in diagram. The PN junction gets forward biased. Holes get
injected from P type material in to N type bar. The holes get repelled from B2 terminal as it is at positive
voltage & they will get attracted towards B1 terminal.
 This accumulation of holes in the emitter to B1 region results in the decrease of resistance in this section of
the bar. So IE increases. As more number of holes are injected the device operates in saturation region. The
device is in ON state.
 MODE 3
 If negative voltage is applied to the emitter, The PN junction is reverse biased & the emitter current is
cutoff. The device is in OFF state.

V-I CHARACTERISTICS OF UNIJUNCTION TRANSISTOR (UJT)

 The Curve is between Emitter voltage VE & Emitter current IE.
 Initially, in the cut-off region VE increases from 0, small amount of leakage current flows due to
minority charge carriers.
 After certain value of VE forward current IE begin to flow.
 Peak point P (Ip,Vp)- The maximum voltage after which the current increases & voltage drops.
 The UJT operates in negative resistance region(as IE increases & VE decreases)
 Valley Point V- The minimum voltage after which the device operates in saturation region.
 APPLICATIONS OF UNIJUNCTION TRANSISTOR (UJT)
1) In Oscillators
2) Trigger circuits
3) Saw-tooth generators
4) Pulse & voltage sensing circuits
GTO: GATE TURN OFF THYRISTOR
 GTOs, unlike normal thyristors, are fully controllable switches which can be turned on and off by their third
lead, the gate terminal

 Although the Thyristor (SCR) is extensively used in high power applications, it is not fully controlled
device.
 SCR can be switched ON by applying a gate signal, but it has to be turned OFF by using a commutation
circuit.
 A small positive gate current triggers the GTO into conduction mode and also by a negative pulse on the
gate, it is capable of being turned off.
 Like a Thyristor, a GTO also has
• Four layers P-N-P-N
• Three junctions J1, J2 & J3
• Three Terminals Anode, Cathode & Gate.
 In symbol Gate has double arrows on it which distinguish the GTO from normal SCR. This indicates the
bidirectional current flow through the gate terminal.
 The device can be turned ON either by increasing the anode voltage till the breakdown of junction occures
or by injecting a gate current.
 In saturation, all junctions are forward biased and Once the device has been turned ON, the external gate
current is no longer required to maintain conduction because of regeneration process.
 GTO: Regenerative Action

GTO: OPERATION
 The turn ON operation of GTO is similar to a conventional thyristor.
 The anode terminal is made positive with respect to cathode by applying a positive gate current, this forward
biases J1 & J3 Junctions.
 This results in the emission of electrons from the cathode towards the anode terminal. This induces the hole
injection from the anode terminal into the base region. This injection of holes and electrons continuous till
the GTO comes into the conduction state.
 To turn OFF a conducting GTO, a reverse bias is applied at the gate by making the gate negative with
respect to cathode. A part of the holes from the P base layer is extracted through the gate which suppress the
injection of electrons from the cathode.
 Eventually, the voltage drop across the p base junction causes to reverse bias the gate cathode junction and
hence the GTO is turned OFF.
V-I CHARACTERISTICS OF GTO

 During the turn ON, GTO is similar to thyristor. So the first quadrant characteristics are similar to the
thyristor. When the anode is made positive with respect to cathode, the device operates in forward blocking
mode. By the application of positive gate signal triggers the GTO into conduction state.
 The latching current is considerably higher in GTO compared to the thyristor.
 The gate drive can be removed if the anode current is above the holding current level.
 This may cause the anode current drop below the holding current level transiently, This can be potentially
destructive. Therefore, some manufacturers recommend the continuous gate signal during the conduction
state.
 The GTO can be turned OFF by the application of reverse gate current.
Applications Of GTO
 AC drives
 DC drives or DC choppers
 AC stabilizing power supplies
 DC circuit breakers
 Induction heating
 And other low power applications

IGBT: Insulated Gate Bipolar transistor

IGBT: Equivalent Circuit

 IGBT: Construction & Working
 IGBT combines advantages of both BJT & MOSFET.
 It has MOS structure.
 The equivalent circuit shows that the construction of IGBT works like two transistors connected back to
back along with a MOSFET
 IGBT can be simply turned “ON” or “OFF” by activating and deactivating its Gate terminal.
 IGBT turns ON when the collector is at positive potential with respect to emitter and gate also at sufficient
positive potential (>VGET) with respect to emitter.
 When positive input voltage signal is applied across the Gate and the Emitter, then the device turns ON.
 This condition leads to formation channel & current begins to flow from collector to emitter.
 Making the input gate signal zero or slightly negative will cause it to turn “OFF” in much the same way as a
bipolar transistor or E- MOSFET.
 The collector current Ic in IGBT has two components- Ie and Ih.
Ie : Current due to injected electrons flowing from collector to emitter through injection layer, drift
layer and finally the channel formed.
Ih: Hole current flowing from collector to emitter through Q1 and body resistance Rb.
As Ih is almost negligible Ic ≈ Ie.
 Latching up of IGBT
 This occurs when collector current exceeds a certain threshold value (ICE).
 In this the parasitic thyristor gets latched up and the gate terminal loses control over collector current and
IGBT fails to turn off even when gate potential is reduced below VGET.
 For turning OFF of IGBT now, we need typical commutation circuitry as in the case of forced commutation
of thyristors.
 If the device is not turned off as soon as possible, it may get damaged.
IGBT: V-I Charactristics
 The graph is similar to that of a BJT except that the parameter which is kept constant for a plot is VGE
because IGBT is a voltage controlled device unlike BJT which is a current controlled device.
 IGBT: Transfer Characteristics
(Same as PMOSFET)
The IGBT is in ON-state only after VGE is greater than a threshold value VGET.

IGBT: Advantages
 It has a very low on-state voltage drop.
 Smaller chip size is possible and the cost can be reduced.
 Low driving power and a simple drive circuit due to the input MOS gate structure.
 It can be easily controlled as compared to thyristor
 Superior current conduction capability compared with the bipolar transistor. It also has excellent forward
and reverse blocking capabilities.
 Lower gate drive requirements
 Low switching losses
 Small snubber circuitry requirements
 High input impedance
 Voltage controlled device
 Temperature coefficient of ON state resistance is positive and less than PMOSFET, hence less On-state
voltage drop and power loss.
 Enhanced conduction due to bipolar nature
 Better Safe Operating Area

IGBT: Disadvantages
• Cost
• Latching-up problem
• High turn off time compared to PMOSFET
 TRIAC (Triode A.C. switch)
It is a 3 terminal semiconductor switching device which can control alternating current in a load.
Construction
A triac is a 3 terminal 5 layer semiconductor device whose forward & reverse characteristics are identical to
the forward characteristics of SCR.
3 terminals
Main Terminal 1 - MT1
Main Terminal 2 - MT2
Gate G
A TRIAC is equivalent to 2 separate SCR’s connected in inverse parallel with common gate as shown in
dia.
So TRIAC acts like bidirectional switch i.e. it can conduct current in either direction. The TRIAC can be
turned ON either with positive or negative voltage at the gate of the device.
Once the TRIAC is fired in to conduction, the gate loses all control.

rfrfrffrf
SCR equivalent circuit of TRIAC
A TRIAC is equivalent to 2 separate SCR’s connected in inverse parallel (anode of each connected to the cathode
of the other) with common gate.
The left half consists of a PNPN device (P1N2P2N4) having 3 PN junctions & constitutes SCR1, similarly the right
half consists of PNPN device (P2N3P1N1) having 3 PN junctions & constitutes SCR2.
If MT1 is negative, MT2 is positive & TRIAC is fired in to conduction by proper gate current, the TRIAC will
conduct current following the left half path as shown in dia.
If MT1 is positive, MT2 is negative & TRIAC is fired in to conduction by proper gate current, the TRIAC will
conduct current following the right half path as shown in dia.
TRIAC OPERATION
The AC supply to be controlled is connected across the main terminals of TRIAC through a load resistance RL. The
gate circuit consists of battery, a current limiting resistor R & a switch S.
MODE I
When switch s is open, there will be no gate current & the TRIAC is cutoff. The TRIAC can be turned ON by
supplying voltage equal to breakover voltage of TRIAC. But the normal way to turn on TRIAC is by introducing
proper gate current.
MODE II
When switch S is closed, the gate current starts flowing in the gate circuit. With a few milliamperes introduced at
the gate, the TRIAC will start conducting whether terminal MT2 is positive or negative w.r.t. MT1.
If MT2 is positive w.r.t. MT1, the TRIAC turns ON & the conventional current will flow from MT2 to MT1. If the
terminal MT2 is negative w.r.t. MT1, the TRIAC is again turned ON but this time the conventional current flows
from MT1 to MT2.
This shows that TRIAC can act as an a.c. contactor to switch ON or OFF alternating current to a load.