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Power MOSFET:
Features:
High Input resistance.
Low Saturation Resistance.
Low Saturation Voltage.
High Saturation Current.

Thyristor:
The thyristor has four layers PNPN semiconductor switching device. It has three terminals: Anode, Cathode and
gate. When the anode voltage is made positive with respect to the cathode, the junction J1 and J3 are forward
biased while junction J2 is reverse biased. A very small leakage current will flow through the device. The thyristor
is then said to be in the forward blocking state or off state condition. If the voltage at anode is continuously
increased, the breakdown of reverse bias junction J2 occurs due to high voltage gradient and the device is
switched on. The voltage drop would be due to ohmic drop in the four layers and it is small, typically 1V. In the
on-state, the anode current is limited by an external impedance or a resistance.

The anode current must be more than Latching
Current for on-state condition. If the anode current
does not fall below the Holding Current the thyristor
remains on. The latching current is usually double the
holding current but both are low, even much less than
1 of the full load rated value. Latching Current is the
minimum anode current required to maintain the
thyristor in the on-state immediately after a thyristor
has been turned on and gate signal has been
removed.
Gate Triggering is the most common method of
turning on the SCRs, because this method lends itself
accurately for turning on the SCRs at the desired
instant of time.
Gate Current: 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. The following points should be considered in designing the gate control circuit:
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1. The gate signal should be removed after the thyristor turned on. A continuous gating signal would increase the power
loss in the gate junction.
2. While thyristor is reverse biased. There should be no gate signal; otherwise, the thyristor may fail due to an increased
leakage current.
3. The width of gate pulse tG must be longer than the time required for the anode current to rise to the holding current
value IH. In practice, the pulse width tG is normally made more than the turn on time tON of the thyristor.

Diac:
A diac is a two-terminal four-layer
semiconductor device (thyristor) that
can conduct current in either direction
when activated. Notice that there are
two terminals, labelled A1 and A2.The top
and bottom layers contain both n and p
materials. The right side of the stack can
be regarded as a pnpn structure with the
same characteristics as a four-layer
diode, while the left side is an inverted
four-layer diode having an npnp
structure.
Conduction occurs in a diac when the break over voltage is reached with either polarity across the two terminals. Once
break over occurs, current is in a direction depending on the polarity of the voltage across the terminals. The device turns
off when the current drops below the holding value.

Triac:
A triac is like a diac with a gate
terminal. A triac can be turned
on by a pulse of gate current
and does not require the break
over voltage to initiate
conduction, as does the diac.
Basically, a triac can be thought
of simply as two SCRs
connected in parallel and in
opposite directions with a
common gate terminal. Unlike
the SCR, the triac can conduct
current in either direction when it is triggered on, depending on the polarity of the voltage across its A1 and A2 terminals.

Notice that the break over potential decreases as the gate current increases, just as with the SCR. As with other thyristors,
the triac ceases to conduct when the anode current drops below the specified value of the holding current, IH. The only
way to turn off the triac is to reduce the current to a sufficiently low level.

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Unijunction Transistor (UJT):
It is a three terminal device. The device input, is called the emitter, has a resistance which rapidly decreases when the
input voltage reaches a certain level. This is termed a negative resistance characteristics. It has three terminals called
the Emitter (E), Base-one (B1) and Base-two (B2). It is made up of an N-type base to which P-type emitter is embedded. P-
type emitter is heavily doped and N-type base is lightly doped.



Operation:
The unijunction transistor is a highly efficient switch. Its
switching time is in the range of nanoseconds, since it
exhibits negative resistance characteristics. If no potential
difference exists between its emitter and either of its base
leads, an extremely small current flows from B2 to B1. On
the other hand, if an adequately large voltage - relative to
its base leads-, known as the trigger voltage, is applied to
its emitter, then a very large current will flow from its
emitter and join the current flowing from B2 to B1, which
would create a larger B1 output current.
Current flows in two paths through the UJT. One is through
Base 2 to Base 1 and the other path is through Emitter to
the Base 1. To turn it ON, voltage applied to the emitter is
about 10V higher than the voltage applied to the Base 1.
Then the current will flow until the voltage applied to the emitter drops to a point that is about 3V higher than voltage
applied to Base 1. UJT will turn off in this condition and will turn ON again when voltage at emitter higher 10V that the
voltage applied at the Base 1. The UJT has a maximum inter-base voltage rating, so the circuit cannot exceed it without
damaging the part.
Advantages: Low cost device, low-power absorbing device under normal operating conditions, a stable very low value of
triggering current needed, a high pulse current capability, a negative resistance characteristic.

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Operation of Unijunction Transistor Relaxation Oscillator:
When dc power is applied, the capacitor C
charges exponentially through R1 until it
reaches the peak-point voltage VP. At this
point, the pn junction becomes forward-
biased, and the emitter characteristic goes
into the negative resistance region (VCE
decreases and IE increases). The capacitor
then quickly discharges through the forward-
biased junction, rB, and R2. When the
capacitor voltage decreases to the valley-
point voltage VV the UJT turns off, the
capacitor begins to charge again, and the
cycle is repeated, as shown in the emitter
voltage waveform in Figure (right-top).
During the discharge time of the capacitor,
the UJT is conducting. Therefore, a voltage is developed across R2, as shown in the waveform diagram in Figure (bottom).


Applications of Power Switching devices:
1. Full Bridge Control of ac Motor Speed using Thyristors:
Each thyristor
begins to
conduct only
when a current
pulse is injected
into the gate.
Once a thyristor
begins to conduct, it continues to conduct until the current flowing through it
becomes zero. With a resistive load, the current becomes zero the instant the
ac source voltage ES passes through 0volts. Therefore, the output is a full-wave
rectified voltage which is always positive. Since conduction can be initiated at
any angle in the waveform between 0 and almost 180, the average output
voltage E0, and therefore the average current, can be varied between 0 and
100%.

2. Control of AC lighting using a TRIAC:
This is a simple TRIAC a.c load dimmer used to control the power of a resistive load such as incandescent lamp or heater
element. The max load it can handle is 400VA.
The circuit is working by controlling the phase of the 220VAC voltage allowing the load to be powered for less than 360
of the full sine wave. Powering the load for smaller period than full sine wave delivers less power, so it has a dimming
effect on the load. Control is done throughout R2 potentiometer which controls the time needed for the C2 to be charged
through R1-R2. C2 is charging until it reaches the breakdown voltage of DIAC D1 which then fires the TRIAC T1. Once the
TRIAC is contacting the circuit is closed and the load receives power.

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The rate which C2 charges determinates the point on
220VAC sine wave where it reaches the breakdown
voltage of DIAC. So, slow C2 charging means that the
DIAC conducts at the end of AC period and fast C2
charging means that DIAC conducts at the beginning of
AC sine. Components L1 and C1 act as interference
suppression filter reducing RF emissions.

Firing Modes:
The thyristor is basically a switch, which can be switched on at any time, but can only be switched off when the current
flowing through it is zero, which occurs twice per cycle in AC heating applications. Heating power is controlled by switching
the thyristor on and off, and varying the relative proportion of on-time and off-time. There are two fundamental modes
of control (firing modes):
1. Phase angle control:
The thyristor or triac is switched on at a particular phase of the half-cycle and remains on until the half-cycle ends. The
amount of power supplied to the load depends on for how large a fraction of the half-cycle the thyristor is switched on.

2. Use of Burst Firing in conjunction with Zero-Crossing Triggering:
A zero-crossing switched SCR power controller works by triggering at
the moment when the value of the ac sine wave is at the zero voltage.
This results in a burst of full line voltage and ensuring that full sine
wave cycles are passes through the load. Proportioning action is
obtained by varying the number of cycles on to the number of cycles
off. This output is integrated by the heaters and SCR temperature
controllers which produce a smoothly proportioning heat output that
varies directly with the input signal and can accommodate fast, full power on/off cycling.
Its advantages include prevention of fast changes in load current, very low harmonics and RFI (Radio Frequency
Interference) as well as higher reliability because the SCR is turned on at zero voltage and current.
Formulas:
With phase control: Avg. Load Voltage (VL) =

2
(1 +cos )
With Burst Firing: Load Power (PL) =

where, V = Peak Power
= Firing angle
N = Number of ON cycles.
T = Total number of cycles.

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Thyristor Commutation:
Process of turning off a conducting thyristor.
Methods of Forced Commutation:
Resonant Pulse Commutation.
Series LC circuit connected across thyristor T.
Initially C is charged to V volts with plate a as positive.
Current in LC oscillates when SCR is ON.
T turns off when capacitor discharges through thyristor in a
direction opposite to IL.



Complementary (parallel capacitor) Commutation.
Two SCRs are used, turning ON one SCR turns off the
other.
T1 is fired, IL flows through R1.
At same time C charges towards V through R2 with
plate b positive.
To turn off T1, T2 is fired resulting in capacitor voltage
reverse biasing T1 and turning it off.
When T2 is fired current through load shoots up as
voltage across load is V+VC










t
t
Voltage across
SCR
I
SCR
Thyristor Current
L
C
V
Load
FWD
a
b
i
T
I
L
V
R
1
R
2
T
1
T
2
I
L
i
C
C
a b
Gate pulse
of T
1
Gate pulse
of T
2
Current through R
1

I
L
V
t
t
t
t
Current through T
1
Current through T
2
2
2
V
R
2
1
V
R
V
R
1
V
R
2
V
R
1
2
1
V
R
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Push Pull Inverter using thyristors:
Figure shows an inverter employing two SCRs and a transformer. These two
SCRs are triggered into conduction alternately for the same period of time.
As a result, current through the primary becomes alternating which induces
an a.c voltage across the secondary and hence the load. The secondary a.c
voltage has square waveform. The capacitor C is connected across the
anodes of the two SCRs and provides commutation i.e. switching off of the
SCRs. The capacitor charges to double the supply voltage as a result of
transformer action between the two halves of the primary winding. This
large voltage is sufficient to reverse bias the SCRs and drive the holding
current below its rated value.

AC Link Chopper (inverter-rectifier):
In many cases, conversion of the dc source voltage to
different levels is required. For example, subway cars,
trolley buses, or battery operated vehicles require power
from a fixed voltage dc source. However, their speed
control requires conversion of fixed voltage dc source to a
variable-voltage dc source for the armature of the dc
motor.
In this method the dc is first converted to ac, by an inverter
(dc to ac converter). The obtained ac is then stepped up or
down by a transformer and then rectified back to dc by a rectifier. The transformer provides isolation between load and
source. As the conversion is in two stages, dc to ac and ac to dc, this technique is therefore, costly, bulky and less efficient.