POWER ELECTRONICS- l

TOPIC- PROTECTION CIRCUIT OF

SCR

Group member

1. Bhimani Viral 130070109006

2. Suthar Brijesh 130070109007
3. Chauhan Chirag 130070109008
4. Chauhan Nimit 130070109009
5. Chauhan Shailesh 130070109010
 WHY PROTECTION OF SCR
NEEDED?
SCR is a very delicate semiconductor device.
So we have to use it in its specified ratings to
get desired output.

SCR may face different types of threats

during its operation due to over voltages,
over currents etc.

There are different types of thyristor

protection schemes available for satisfactory
operation in market.

Under Power Electronics Protection of a

TYPE OF PROTECTION FOR
SCR
Overvoltage protection.
Overcurrent protection.
High di/dt protection.
High dv/dt protection.

And some circuit like snubber

circuit ,crowbar circuit etc. are
also used for scr protection.
 OVERVOLTAGE PROTECTION
A thyristor may be subjected to internal or external over-
voltages.
Internal Over-Voltages : After commutation of a
thyristor reverse recovery current decays abruptly with
high di/dt which causes a high reverse voltage [as, V =
L(di/dt) so if di/dt is high then V will be large] that can
exceed the rated break-over voltage and the device may
be damaged.
External Over-Voltages : These are caused due to
various reasons in the supply line like lightning, surge
conditions (abnormal voltage spike) etc. External over
voltage may cause different types of problem in
thyristor operation like increase in leakage current,
permanent breakdown of junctions, unwanted turn-on of
devices etc. So, we have to suppress the over-voltages.
Protective Measure :

The effect of over-voltages can be

minimized by using non-linear resistors
called voltage clamping devices like metal
oxide like metal oxide varistor.

Atthe time of normal operation it offers

high impedance and acts as it is not
present in the circuit. But when the
voltage exceeds the rated voltage then it
serves as a low impedance path to protect
SCR.
Voltage Clamping Device:
It is a non-linear resistor called as VARISTOR
(VARIable resiSTOR) connected across the SCR.

The resistance of varistor will decrease with

increase in voltage.

During normal operation, varistor has high

Resistance and draws only small leakage
current.

When high voltage appears, it operates in low

resistance region and the surge energy is
dissipated across the resistance by producing a
virtual short-circuit across the SCR.
SCR Over Voltage
Protection
 OVERCURRENT PROTECTION
In an SCR due to over-current, the junction
temperature exceeds the rated value and the
device gets damaged.

Over-current is interrupted by conventional fuses

and circuit breakers.

The fault current must be interrupted before the

SCR gets damaged and only the faulty branches of
the network should be isolated.

Circuit breaker has long tripping time. So it is used

for protecting SCR against continuous over loads
(or) against surge currents of long duration.ast
acting current limiting fuse is used to protect SCR
against large surge currents of very short duration.
SCR Over Current
Protection
CROWBAR CIRCUIT
 SCR has high surge current ability.SCR is used
in electronic crowbar circuit for overcurrent
protection of power converter.

In this protection, an additional SCR is

connected across the supply which is known
as Crowbar SCR.

Current sensing resistor detects the value of

converter current.If it exceeds preset value,
then gate trigger circuits turn ON the crowbar
SCR.

So the input terminals are short-circuit by SCR

and thus it bypass the converter over current.

After some time the main fuse interrupts the

fault current.
 HIGH di/dt PROTECTION
When a thyristor is forward biased and is
turned on by a gate pulse, conduction of
anode current begins in the immediate
neighbourhood of the gate-cathode
junction.
Thereafter, the current spreads across
the whole area of junction.
The thyristor design permits the spread
of conduction to the whole junction area
as rapidly as possible.
However, if the rate of rise of anode
current, i.e. di/dt, is large as compared
to the spread velocity of carriers, local
hot spots will be formed near the gate
connection on account of high current
 applying a gate current nearer to (but
never greater)This localized heating may
destroy the thyristor. Therefore, the rate
of rise of anode current at the time of
turn-on must be kept below the specified
limiting value.
The value of di/dt can be maintained
below acceptable limit by using a small
inductor, called di/dt inductor, in series
with the anode circuit. Typical di/dt limit
values of SCRs are 20-500 A/ sec.
Local spot heating can also be avoided by
ensuring that the conduction spreads to
the whole area as rapidly as possible.
This can be achieved by than) the
maximum specified gate current.
 A thyristor requires a minimum time to
spread the current conduction uniformly
throughout the junctions

Otherwise, a localized hot-spot heating

may occur due to high current density.
 High dv/dt protection
Protection against high rate of change of
voltage i.e. dV/dt also needed for
satisfactory operation of SCR.

Effect of High Voltage Rise Rate

Protectionagainst high rate of voltage rise

is necessary because if SCR is not in
conduction mode and is forward biased
mode then high dV/dt may trigger the SCR,
and SCR will not be able to serve it
purpose.
Protection Method
As we all know capacitor is a good charge
storing option and provide less resistance
for high frequency voltage so a capacitor
may be connected in parallel to the SCR to
protect it from high rate of change of
voltage i.e. dV/dt.

These were the methods of protection of

SCR against high di/dt and high dV/dt.

Typical values of dv/dt are 20 500 V/sec.

False turn-on of a thyristor by large dv/dt
can be prevented by using a snubber circuit
in parallel with the device.
 Snubber circuit
A snubber circuit consists of a series
combination of resistance Rs and capacitance
Cs in parallel with the thyristor as shown in Fig.
Strictly speaking, a capacitor Cs in parallel with
the device is sufficient to prevent unwanted
dv/dt triggering of the SCR.
When switch S is closed, a sudden voltage
appears across the circuit. Capacitor Cs behaves
like a short circuit, therefore voltage across SCR
is zero.
With the passage of time, voltage across Cs
builds up at a slow rate such that dv/dt across
Cs and therefore across SCR is less than the
specified maximum dv/dt rating of the device.
Here the question arises that if Cs is enough to
prevent accidental turn-on of the device by
dv/dt, what is the need of putting Rs in series
with Cs ? The answer to this is as under.
 Before SCR is fired by gate pulse, Cs charges
to full voltage Vs. When the SCR is turned on,
capacitor discharges through the SCR and
sends a current equal to Vs / (resistance of
local path formed by Cs and SCR).

As this resistance is quite low, the turn-on di/dt

will tend to be excessive and as a result, SCR
may be destroyed. In order to limit the
magnitude of discharge current, a resistance
Rs is inserted in series with Cs as shown in Fig.
Thank you