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Circuits for Protecting and Triggering

SCRs in High Power Converters
Angelo L. GATTOZZI and John A. PAPPAS

SPT402BHTW360 manufactured by Silicon Power

Abstract-- The performance of high-power converters Corporation, which is one of the most powerful and
employing SCRs operating at several kilovolts and switching demanding SCRs on the market today. It is believed that most
several thousands of Amperes is strongly dependent on the of the considerations made herein will be applicable in general
triggering circuit and the protecting circuit (snubber) used. In
this paper two stand-alone trigger circuit topologies are discussed
to other devices as well.
and test results are given for one of them in particular, built with
off-the-shelf components. A standard snubber circuit II. TRIGGER CIRCUIT
configuration was used and its ability to protect the SCR was A general treatment of SCR trigger circuits can be found in
examined by classical analytical methods and by computer
simulation. Results of these calculations are reported as well as
reference [1] and, in fact, if allowance is made for the
predictions about the fault tolerance afforded by the snubber subsequent progress in technology, most trigger circuits in use
design to a high power converter using SCRs. today can be considered variants or adaptations of the ones
Since the components of the SCR protective circuits affect found in this reference. The trigger circuits with which we
strongly the overall package size of the converter and tend to experimented are no exception and our focus will be on the
determine the minimum size and weight achievable, a conceptual specific challenges posed to their realization in our particular
design is also presented for a combined snubber/trigger circuit
application. In our application SCR model SPT402BHTW360
with the potential for reduced size and weight for the whole
assembly. was used in a three-phase regenerative ac-dc converter bridge
of standard topology and specified to handle a 10 kV dc bus at
I. INTRODUCTION 48 kA dc bus current. Because of the voltage and current
levels, each leg of the converter consisted of two branches in
T HE performance of SCRs used in high power converters
is strongly dependent on the circuit used for triggering
them. In general, the trigger circuit is specified in terms of the
parallel, with each branch having three SCRs in series. The
multiplicity of series and parallel paths and the reliability
requirements of the converter further aggravated the already
minimum gate drive needed (both open circuit voltage and
demanding specifications for both the trigger and snubber
short circuit current), the length of time in which it must be
circuits. The on-off cycle time of the SCRs was in the 500-
active, and the maximum time allowed for the drive signal to
1,000 Hz range. The desired di/dt capability for each SCR was
rise from zero to its specified amplitude. These parameters can
1,000 A/μs.
often be quite demanding especially in the case of circuits used
From the SCR specifications we can construct the envelopes
to trigger SCRs operating at several kilovolts and kiloamperes.
of minimum requirements for the gate drive circuit (Figs. 1 and
Likewise, the designer of circuits used to protect SCRs or
2, solid lines). Note that the pulse rise-time shown is the
other solid state power switches (commonly referred to as
maximum allowable in order to maintain the specified di/dt
“snubber circuits”) may be faced with operational conditions
capability of 1000 A/μs for the SCR and, therefore, it is an
severe enough that often the physical size of the protective
intrinsic part of the specifications. This insures that the whole
components dwarfs that of the circuit they are meant to
cross sectional area of the SCR is turned on at the same time
protect. Although it is recognized that advances in solid state
and is available for conduction. It is remarkable, however, that
technology continuously improve device characteristics, it is
in order to guarantee the 1000 A/μs for the SCR, a minimum
still worthwhile considering the extent to which such auxiliary
current rise-time capability of 400 A/µs is required from the
circuits, like gate trigger and snubber circuits, affect the
triggering circuits. These stringent requirements on current
overall system performance, size, and weight. This paper will
amplitude and rise-time make it imperative to keep any
consider specifically the case of the SCR model
inductance in the gate current path, either discrete or
distributed, to a minimum.
Manuscript received January 4, 2002. A portion of this research was The first gate drive circuit built for our application used a
carried out under the Focused Technology Project sponsored by the U.S.
pulse transformer to couple the trigger pulse to the SCR gate
Army Research Laboratory through Science Applications International
Corporation under contract 4500002010. Authors are affiliated with The (Fig. 3). Whereas this configuration had the advantage of
University of Texas at Austin Center for Electromechanics, Austin, Texas isolating the trigger circuit from the SCR, it was soon realized
78758, telephone (512) 471-4496, fax (512) 471-0781. that it was difficult to manufacture a suitable pulse transformer
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with low inductance and sufficient current handling capability of voltage overshoot that can be tolerated across the SCR, the
without incurring large penalties in size and cost. An alternate distribution of losses between the switch and the snubber
approach proved to be preferable and resulted in the circuit circuit, and the allowable dv/dt and di/dt for the SCR and
shown in Fig. 4. Here the pulse transformer is removed from capacitor. One finds very quickly that the physical size of the
the gate circuit proper and is used only to initiate the discharge capacitor tends to dwarf that of all the other components, thus
of a storage capacitor via a fast acting IGBT switch in series dominating the issue of optimization of size and weight of the
with the SCR gate. The penalty for this approach is that the assembly. Size, of course, affects directly the issue of the
gate drive circuit is no longer isolated from the SCR, although unavoidable parasitic reactances that further complicate the
the isolation is provided at the pulse transformer and at the design process. Applying the analytical model described in [3]
power transformer through which the storage capacitor is to our case, the snubber we used would lead to an over-
recharged. damped voltage response across the SCR with calculated
The circuit shown in Fig. 4 was realized in a printed circuit voltage overshoot and dv/dt across the SCR of 112 V and
configuration with off-the-shelf components. One gate trigger 2200 V/µs respectively, as shown in Figs. 8 and 9. Thus we
circuit per SCR was used. Particular care was exercised in can say that, within the limits of the approximations of the
keeping circuit reactances at their lowest possible level but no analytical solution, the snubber is expected to be very effective
special effort was expended, in this first realization, in in containing the voltage overshoot, but not the dv/dt, within
optimizing the design with regard to overall trigger circuit the specifications of the SCR. A computer simulation
size. This would certainly impact the circuit layout and performed on the whole supply-converter-load system with the
parasitic effects and, therefore, its performance, as is well commercially available software SABER results in a larger
known [2]. It is recognized, therefore, that opportunities do value (~1,000 V) for the voltage overshoot, but still keeps the
exist for size and weight reduction of the trigger circuit total voltage within the device specifications. On the other
assemblies. Even as designed and built, however, the circuit hand the SABER simulation predicts a dv/dt smaller by an
met the stringent performance requirements specified, as order of magnitude (~200 V/µs) than the one calculated
shown by the experimental gate drive pulses in Figs. 5, 6 and analytically, which is well within the SCR specifications.
7. Considering that the analytical solution relied on a simplified
What has been said above applies to any SCR with model of an isolated SCR in order to obtain results in a closed
specifications comparable to those of the SPT402BHTW360 form, it seems reasonable to give more weight to the more
device used. Other devices are already available that do not comprehensive SABER simulation and conclude that the
need the aggressive triggering of this SCR (e.g. the SPT411 values used for the snubber capacitor and resistor are expected
SCR also manufactured by SPCO). The advent of these newer to be adequate for protecting the SCR. Additionally, the
devices should also allow a dramatic reduction in both volume SABER simulation demonstrated the robustness of the
and weight of the triggering circuit. converter design by showing that the failure for any reason of
any single SCR module (SCR with trigger and snubber
III. SNUBBER CIRCUIT circuits) in the three SCR series combination in each leg of the
The snubber circuit was implemented simply as the series converter did not impair the overall operation of the system. In
combination of a capacitor and a resistor placed in parallel fact, in the simulation, the system performed within the
with the SCR. Its function is to keep the electrical stresses on specifications even after the failure of one SCR module. This
the power switch within safe levels and to reduce unbalances will have to be verified in actual tests. The design of the
between the SCRs in series due to differences in response of converter was meant to have this degree of redundancy, fully
the devices under transient conditions. Specifically, the recognizing that two SCR series combinations would be
snubber limits the voltage level and the rate of voltage change sufficient instead of three. The limiting action of the snubber
(dv/dt) across the SCR during turn-off and, furthermore, it circuits is crucial in affording this level of robustness. Unless
allows more time for the slower SCRs to recover their voltage new devices with higher performance capability are used, any
standoff capability by providing an alternate path for the further optimization of the system will probably require a
reverse recovery current. Likewise, at turn-on, the snubber compromise between size and weight on one hand and
limits any unbalance between slow turn-on devices and fast reliability and fault tolerance on the other.
turn-on devices. In our case, using the methods discussed in
[1], the acceptable range for the snubber capacitor was IV. INTEGRATED SNUBBER-TRIGGER
determined to be between 1.3 and 4.7 µF and that for the Both snubber circuits and trigger circuits discussed above
snubber resistor to be between 3.2 and 5.7 Ω. These results were built with off-the-shelf components and are shown in
matched the values respectively of 3.5 µF and 3.5 Ω that were Figures 10 and 11. Obviously, they could be reduced in size
suggested by the supplier of the SCRs and that were eventually and weight if special components were used. Another
used in our circuit. alternative exists, however, and is described briefly below.
Both selections of capacitor and resistor present challenges In an effort to minimize the size and weight of the entire
for the designer of the snubber circuit. At issue are the amount converter, a circuit combining both functions of the trigger and
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snubber circuits was developed, built and tested [4]. Fig. 12

shows the conceptual design. When the SCR is in the forward
blocking mode, the snubber capacitor charges through the
charging resistor Rc to a voltage limited by the Zener diode Dz.
This voltage is then used to trigger the SCR gate at the desired
time via the IGBT switch. Upon turn-off, when the voltage
across the SCR changes polarity, the snubber works in the
normal fashion via diode Ds. In this circuit, the snubber
capacitor also provides the trigger pulse for the SCR gate. This
circuit has the potential of minimizing the overall size and
weight of the snubber-trigger combination even if three
additional diodes (one of them a Zener) and a resistor are
Fig. 1. Gate drive open circuit voltage requirements
required over the simple RC snubber circuit. Some variations
of this concept are possible and have to be investigated as to
their benefits and effectiveness.

V. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, results are given for the design of a trigger
circuit and a snubber circuit used in connection with a specific
high power SCR. Two stand-alone trigger circuit topologies
and their electrical performance and potential for
miniaturization are discussed. Experimental results are
included for the case of a specific trigger circuit design. The
selection of snubber components is also discussed, again with
consideration given to size and weight optimization. The
analysis then continues with the presentation of an integrated
snubber/trigger circuit topology with potential for reduced part
Fig. 2. Gate drive short circuit current requirements
count, size, and weight.

VI. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by the U.S. Army Research
Laboratory and by The University of Texas Institute for
Applied Technology.

REFERENCES
[1] D.R. Grafham and F.B. Golden, Editors, SCR Manual, General Electric
Co., 6th Edition, 1979.
[2] J.D. van Wyk jr., and W.A. Cronje, "Detrimental layout electromagnetic
effects in converters," IEEE IAS Conf. 2000, vol. 5, p. 3097-3104.
[3] C.W. Lee and S.B. Park, "Design of a thyristor snubber circuit by
considering the reverse recovery process," IEEE Transactions on Power
Electronics, vol. 3, no. 4, Oct. 1988. Fig. 3. Pulse transformer coupled trigger circuit
[4] J.A. Pappas and M. Salinas, internal reports, The University of Texas
Center for Electromechanics, 1999.
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Fig. 4. Gate trigger circuit (black arrows indicate optical signal input)

Fig. 7. Current output of trigger circuit loaded by SCR gate in a repetitive

Fig. 5. Open circuit output voltage of trigger circuit mode

Fig. 6. Short circuit output current of trigger circuit Fig. 8. Calculated voltage overshoot across the SCR during turn-off (steady
state value is 1,667V)
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Fig. 9. Calculated dv/dt across SCR during turn-off

Fig. 10: Snubber for one SCR with DC equalizer circuit branch

Fig. 11: Shielded box with supply and trigger circuitry for six SCRs (one leg
of converter); box outside dimensions are 16x20x7 in.

Fig. 12. Conceptual design of a combined snubber/trigger circuit