Name: Gayathri Arvind
Roll No: B180878EE
EE4093D - Power Engineering Lab
Experiment No: 1
Thyristor Characteristics
● Aim :
To plot the I-V Characteristics of a Thyristor for:
I) Zero Gate Current
II) Half of Rated Gate Current
III) Full Rated Gate Current
Find forward and reverse break over voltages & latching and holding current in each case
● Components Required :
[Link] Name of Component Specification Quantity
1 Thyristor S4020L 1
2 Voltage Source 2
3 Resistors (48.83, 33.2 , 3.33, 1.67) ohms 4
● Theory & Design :
○ SCR or Silicon Controlled Rectifier is a silicon based unidirectional semiconductor
device. It is called Thyristor as it is the solid state equivalent of thyratron.
○ It consists of three-terminals, and is a four-layer semiconductor device
consisting of alternate layers of p-type and n-type material.
○ The figure below shows an SCR with the layers p-n-p-n. The device has terminals
Anode(A), Cathode(K) and the Gate(G). The Gate terminal(G) is attached to the
p-layer nearer to the Cathode(K) terminal.
○ The SCR is capable of allowing current unidirectionally only if one of two conditions,
either voltage above breakdown voltage or if a gate current is applied such that it goes
into a latching state
○ Latching: It is a condition in which once a thyristor is switched ON, it can not turn
itself OFF even in absence of the gate pulse, Until the current flowing through it
becomes negative.
○ Break over voltage: It is the minimum voltage between the two ends of the thyristor
required to turn it ON in the absence of a gate current.
○ Latching Current: It is the minimum current that must flow through the thyristor to
turn it ON and get it into the "Latched" State
○ Holding Current: It is the current through the thyristor above which the thyristor will
remain in "Latched State".
CIRCUIT SCHEMATICS
Circuit for determining forward and reverse break voltage
& determining holding and latching current at 0 Gate Current
Circuit for Holding and Latching current at half of Peak Gate Current (1.5 A)
Circuit for determining Holding and Latching current at Peak Gate Current (3 A)
● Tabular Column :
Rated Voltage 400 V
Rated Current 12.8 A
Peak Gate Current 3A
● Graphs or Curves plotted :
I) Case 1: 0 Gate Current
Graph for Forward and Reverse Break Voltage
II) Case 2: Gate Current = 1.5 A (Half of Peak Current)
III) Case 3: Gate Current = 3 A (Full Peak Current)
● Calculations :
i)Zero rated gate current :
Peak voltage applied = 500 V
Rated current, I-rated = 12.8 A
80% of rated current = 10.24 A
To limit the current to this value,
we need to add a series resistance
R1 = 500/10.24 = 48.825 Ω
R1 = V/(0.8*I-rated) = 340/10.24 = 32.8125 Ω
ii) Half rated gate current
We apply a gate pulse of 5V,
Peak Gate current = 3 A
Required Gate Current = 1.5 A
Rated anode voltage = 400V
S = 0 + 8 +7 + 8= 23 = 2 + 3 = 5
V = [80 + S / 100] x 400 = 340 V
R1 = V / (0.8*I-rated) = 340/10.24 = 33.20 Ω
R2 = 5 V / (Peak Gate current/2) = 3.33 Ω
iii)Full rated gate current
We apply a gate pulse of 5V,
Peak Gate current = Required Gate Current = 3 A
Load Voltage remains the same
R1 = V / (0.8*I-rated) = 336/10.24 = 32.8125 Ω
R2 = 5 V / (Peak Gate current) = 1.667 Ω
● Result :
The forward break over voltage was found to be = 401.28 V
The reverse breakdown voltage was found to be = -400.57 V
The latching and holding currents in each case was determined to be as follows:
Latching Current Holding Current
Case I - No Gate Current 8.241 A 3.27 mA
Case II - 1.5 A 378 mA -127 mA
Case III - 3 A 361 mA -204.54 mA
We observe that in each case the current peaks at 80% of rated current as we have designed.
SCR circuit was designed and VI characteristics were successfully determined.