The ability of an SCR to control large currents to a load by means of small gate current makes the device very

useful in switching and control applications. A few of the possible applications for the SCR are listed in theintroduction to SCR blog post. Here we will consider six applications of SCR like power control, switching, zero-voltage switching, over-voltage protection, pulse circuits and battery charging regulator. 1. Power Control.

SCR Power Control Circuit Because of the bistable characteristics of semiconductor devices, whereby they can be switched on and off, and the efficiency of gate control to trigger such devices, the SCRs are ideally suited for many industrial applications. SCRs have got specific advantages over saturable core reactors and gas tubes owing to their compactness, reliability, low losses, and speedy turn-on and turn-off. The bistable states (conducting and non-conducting) of the SCR and the property that enables fast transition from one state to the other are made use of in the control of power in both ac and dc circuits.

SCR Phase Control In ac circuits the SCR can be turned-on by the gate at any angle with respect to applied voltage. This angle is called the firing angle and power control is obta ined by varying the firing angle. This is known asphase control. A simple half-wave circuit is shown in figure a. for illustrating the principle of phase control for an inductive load. The load current, load voltage and supply voltage waveforms are shown in figure b. The SCR will turn-off by natural commutation when the current becomes zero. Angle is known as the conduction angle. By varying the firing angle a, the rms value of the load voltage can be varied. The power consumed by the load decreases with the increase in firing angle a. The reactive power input from the supply increases with the increase in firing angle. The load current wave-form can be improved by connecting a free-wheeling diode D1, as shown by the dotted line in fig-a. With this diode, SCR will be turned-off as soon as the input voltage polarity reverses. After that, the load current will free wheel through the diode and a reverse voltage will appear across the SCR. The main advantage of phase control is that the load current passes through a natural zero point during every half cycle. So, the device turns-off by itself at the end of every conducting period and no other commutating circuit is required. Power control in dc circuits is obtained by varying the duration of on-time and off-time of the device and such a mode of operation is called on-off control or chopper control. Another important application of SCRs is ininverters, used for converting dc into ac. The input frequency is related to the triggering frequency of SCRs in the inverters. Thus, variable frequency supply can be easily obtained and used for speed control of ac motors, induction heating, electrolytic cleaning, fluorescent lighting and several other applications. Because of the large power-handling capacity of the SCRs, the SCR controlled inverter has more or less replaced motor-generator sets and magnetic frequency multipliers for generating high frequency at large power ratings. Operation of Power Control in SCR A commonly used circuit for controlling power in load R L using two SCRs is shown in figure. Potentiometer R controls the angle of conduction of the two SCRs. The greater the resistance of the pot, lesser will be the voltage across capacitors C1 and C2 and hence smaller will be the time duration of conduction of SCR 1 and SCR2 during a cycle. During positive half cycle capacitor C2 gets charged through diode D1, pot R, and diode D4. When the capacitor gets fully charged, (charge on the capacitor depending upon the value of R) it discharges through Zener diode Z. This gives a pulse to the primary and thereby secondary of the transformer T 2. Thus SCR2, which is forward biased, is turned on and conducts through load RL. During negative half cycle similar action takes place due to charging of capacitor C 1 and SCR1 is triggered. Thus power to a load is controlled by using SCRs.