Chapter 7:Introduction to

Power Electronics
Power Diodes:
• Standard or general purpose diodes
• Fast recovery diodes
• Schottky diodes
• Silicon carbide diodes
Thyristor:
• Four layer semiconductor device of pnpn structure
• 3 pn junctions
• Anode (A), cathode (K) and Gate (G) are three terminals
Thyristor… (WORKING)
• 1. when gate is opened:
• Junctions J1 and J3 are forward biased and J2 is reversed biased, only leakage
current flow.
• If the applied voltage is increased gradually, at one point junction J2 breaks down
and thyristor conducts heavily and said to be on ON state.
Thyristor… (WORKING)
• 2. when gate is positive wrt to cathode:
• If a thyristor is forward biased, the injection of gate current by applying positive
gate voltage turns on the thyristor.
• When IG> 0, the amount of reverse bias applied to J2 is decreased thereby
decreasing the breakover voltage
• With very large positive gate current breakover may occur at a very low voltage
Thyristor working….
• Once the thyristor is turned ON, the gate looses control ie gate can’t
be used to device OFF.
• One way to turn the device OFF is by lowering the anode current
below the holding current IH by reducing the supply voltage
• A gate signal is removed after the thyristor is turned ON. A continuous
gating signal would increase the power loss in the gate junction.
• Latching current IL is the minimum anode current required to
maintain the thyristor in the on state immediately after a thyristor has
been turned on and the gate signal has been removed.
• Holding current IH is the maximum anode current , gate being open,
at which thyristor is turned OFF from ON condition.
VI characteristics curve:
Two transistor Model of Thyristor:
• A thyristor can be considered as two complementary transistors one
pnp Q1 and other npn Q2.
• For transistor Q1
• IC1 =α1IT + ICBO1
• ICBO1 is leakage current for Q1
• Similarly for transistor Q2
• IC2 =α2IK + ICBO2
• ICBO2 is leakage current for Q2
Two transistor model…..
• Then, IT = IC1 + IB1 = IC1 + IC2
• IT = α1IT + ICBO1 + α2IK + ICBO2
• For gate current IG
• I K = I T + IG
• Solving two equations
• IT = α1IT + ICBO1 + α2(IT + IG) + ICBO2
• IT =
• If (α1 + α2 ) tends to be unity, the denominator approaches zero,
resulting in a large value of anode current and thyristor turns on with
a small gate current.
Thyristor Turn On:

• Thermal:
• Light:
• High Voltage:
• Gate current:
Thyristor Turn On:
•

• When the device is forward biased, J1 and J3 are forward biased, J2 is reverse biased.Juncti
on J2 behaves as a capacitor, due to the charges existing across the junction.If voltage acros
s the device is V, the charge by Q and capacitance by C then,
• ic = C.dV/dt    
• Therefore when the rate of change of voltage across the device
large, the device  may turn ON, even if the voltage 
across the device is small.
Thyristor Turn OFF:
• 1. Anode current Interruption:
Thyristor turn off:
• 2. Forced Commutation:
• The method of discharging
• of a capacitor in parallel
• with SCR is to turn
• off the SCR is
• forced commutation.
Forced commutation…
Assuming SCR1 is turned on:
Forced commutation…
• When SCR2 is turned on:
Controlled rectifier:
• 1. Half wave rectifier:
• Let Vin = Vmsinωt
• Ɵ is the firing angle and rectifier conducts from Ɵ to 1800 during
positive half cycle.
Half wave rectifier….
• Average or dc output (Vdc)
= area under the curve /base
=
= (1+cosƟ)
Full wave rectifier:
• Let Vin = Vm sinωt

• Vdc = = (1+cosƟ)
Vdc =
Numericals:
• In an SCR halfwave rectifier, the forward breakdown voltage of SCR is
110V for gate current of 1 mA. If a 50 Hz sinusoidal peak voltage of
220V is applied, find firing angle, conduction angle, average voltage,
average current, average power output and the time during which
SCR remains off. Assume load resistance is 100 Ω and the holding
current to be zero.
• V = Vmsinωt
• 110 = 220 sinϴ
• ϴ= 300

• Conduction angle= 180-30=1500

• Vdc= 65.34 V
• Idc =Iav =0.6534 A
• o/p power =42.69 w
• ωt= 300 = π/6
• t =1.667 ms
numericals…
• A full wave controlled rectifier employs 2 SCRs and 2 diodes in bridge
configuration to rectify 230V, 50 Hz ac mains and gives output of 150
V to a resistive load of 10Ω. Find the firing angle, the time during
which the SCR remains off and the load current. Assuming holding
current to be zero.

• Vdc =
• ϴ = 63.330
• t=3.52 ms
• Iav= 15 A
Old Question:
• A half wave rectifier circuit employing as SCR is adjusted to have a
gate current of 1 mA. The forward breakdown voltage of SCR is 100V
for Ig : 1mA. If sinusoidal voltage of 200V peak is applied. Find
• i) Firing angle = 300
• ii) Conduction angle = 1500
• iii) Average current, assume load resistance : 100 Ω; =0.594A
• iv) In this circuit if holding current is 200 mA. Find average current in
this case
Old Question:
• Assuming drop across thyristor is negligible, for holding current of
200mA, V2 = IH*R = 20V
• Is the decreasing value of Vin when thyristor is turned off.
• Θ2 = sin-1( = 5.7390
• Now thyristor conducts from 300 to 174.2610
• Vdc = (cosƟ1-cosƟ2) = 59.237V
Old question : 2071 shrawan
• For half wave controlled rectifier with a load R=50Ω, input voltage is a
120 V-rms ac voltage. Assume that the drop across SCR is 1.5 V when
it is conducting
• A. what should be the firing angle if it is desired to deliver an average
current of 1A to the load?
• What is the average power delivered to the load under the condition
of A.?
Solution:
• Vm = . Vrms = 169.7 V
• Voltage drop across SCR when it is conducting (VAK) = 1.5V
• R=50Ω
• Iav = 1A
• Vdc = (1+cosƟ)
• Iav = Vdc/R =(1+cosƟ)
• Firing angle = Ɵ = 29.790
• Pav = Vdc.Idc = 50W
Old Questions:
• 1. The latching current for a thyristor inserted between a dc source
voltage of 100 V and a load being 75 mA. Calculate the minimum
width of the gate-pulse required to turn-on the thyristor when the
load is
• A. purely inductive having an inductance of 100 mH, and
• B. consisting of resistance and inductance of 10 ohm and 100mH
respectively.
• (similar to 2075 chaitra)
Solution:
• A: when the load is purely inductive; B: When Load is RL type
• V= V= R*i+
• = i=
Solving it
• t=
= 75.28 μs
• = = 75 μs
Triac ( ac switch)
• Triac is a three terminal semiconductor switching device which can
control alternating current in a load. Triac is equivalent to two SCRs
connected in parallel but in reverse direction. Therefore a triac will act
as a switch for both directions.
Triac …

• Triac is used for motor speed control, illumination control, etc.

Diac:
• A DIAC is bi-directional semiconductor switch that can be turned on
in both forward and reverse polarities.
• The name DIAC comes from the words DIode AC switch.
Diac application:
• One of the major uses of DIACs within TRIAC circuits. TRIACs do not
fire symmetrically as a result of slight differences between the two
halves of the device.
• The non-symmetrical firing and resulting waveforms give rise to the
generation of unwanted harmonics.
• To resolve the issues resulting from the non-symmetrical operation, a
DIAC is often placed in series with the gate. This device helps make
the switching more even for both halves of the cycle. This results from
the fact that the DIAC switching characteristic is far more even than
that of the TRIAC.
Numerical:
• In the triac firing circuit , the parameters are input voltage Vs = 230V,
50 Hz, diac breakdown voltage = 25V, C = 0.6 µF. R can be varied from
2KΩ to 10K Ω. Find the minimum and maximum firing angle of triac.
• Xc =
• For R= 2K
• Z = R-jXc =5669.78 L-69.340
• I= Vs/Z = 0.0405 L 69.340
• Vc = -jI.Xc= 215.21 L -20.660
• Vc= x 215.21 sin(ωt -20.66)
• ωt = 25.3770 = α1
α2 = 71.50
Inverter:
• Dc to ac converters are known as inverters. The function of an
inverter is to change a dc input voltage to a symmetric ac o/p voltage
of desired magnitude and frequency.
• The output voltage could be fixed or variable at a fixed or variable
frequency. A variable output can be obtained by varying the input dc
voltage and maintaining the gain of inverter constant.
• If the dc input voltage is fixed and it is not controllable, a variable
output can be obtained by varying the gain of the inverter, which is
normally accomplished by pulse-width modulation (PWM) control
within the inverter.
Inverter……..
• The output voltage waveforms of ideal inverter should be sinusoidal.
However, the waveforms of practical inverters are non sinusoidal and
contain certain harmonics. Broadly inverter is classified into two
types:
• single phase inverter
• three phase inverter
Single phase half bridge Inverter:
• consists of two choppers.
• When only transistor Q1 is on , Vo=Vs/2.
• If transistor Q2 is on, Vo = -Vs/2 .
• The logic circuit should be designed such that Q1 and Q2 are not
turned on at the same time. This inverter requires 3 wire dc source.
Single phase half bridge Inverter:
• The rms output voltage
• Vo ==
• The instantaneous output voltage can be expressed as
• Vo = sinωt
• = 0 for n =2,4,6 ….
• The rms value of fundamental component (for n=1)
• V01 = = 0.45 Vs
Single phase half bridge Inverter:
• For an inductive load, the load current can’t change immediately with
the output voltage. If Q1 is turned off at t = To/2, the load current
would continue to flow through D2. Similarly when Q2 is turned off at
t=To, the load current flows through D1 and upper half of the dc
source. Diode D1 and D2 are called feedback diodes.
Numerical:
• The single phase half bridge inverter has a resistive load of R = 2.4 Ω
and the dc input voltage is Vs = 48 V.
• Determine :
• Rms o/p voltage at the fundamental frequency
• The output power
• Average and peak current of each transistors.
• V01 = = 0.45 Vs = 21.6 V
• P= Vo2 /R = 242 /2.4 = 240 W
• Ip = Vs/2R = 10 A
• Iav = Ip/2 ( for 50% duty cycle) = 5A
Single phase full bridge inverter:
• It consists of four choppers.
• When Q1 and Q2 are on Vo= Vs
• If Q3 and Q4 are on , Vo= –Vs.
• 
Single phase full bridge inverter:
• The rms output voltage
• Vo == Vs
• It can be extended to express the instantaneous output voltage in a
Fourier series as
• Vo = sinωt
• = 0 for n =2,4,6 ….
• The rms value of fundamental component (for n=1)
• V01 = = 0.9 Vs
• 
DC Chopper:
• It converts directly from dc to dc and is simply known as dc converter.
• It is equivalent to an ac transformer with continuously variable turn
ratio.
• Like a transformer it can be used to step down or step up a dc voltage
source.
Principle of Step down operation:
• When switch sw, known as chopper, is closed for a time t1the input
voltage Vs appears across the load. If the switch remains off for a time
t2, the voltage across the load is zero.
• Practically switching devices have a finite voltage drop ranging from
0.5 V to 2 V. For sake of simplicity neglecting voltage drops of these
power semiconductor devices,
Principle of Step down operation:
• The average output voltage is given by
• Va =
=
= f .t1.Vs
= KVs
• Where K
• is duty cycle of chopper,
•K==
• Average current Ia = =
• The rms value of output voltage is found as
• Vo(rms) = = Vs
Principle of Step down operation:
• For loss less converter
• Pi = Pout
•
•=

•=

• The effective input

resistance seen by the source
• Ri = =
• The duty cycle K can be varied from 0 to 1 by varying t1, T or f. Therefore the output voltage
Vo can be varied from 0 to Vs by controlling K, and the power flow can be controlled.
Dc chopper:
• Constant frequency operation:
• Frequency (f) of converter is kept constant and the on time t1 is varied.
The width of the pulse is varied and this type of control is known as
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM)
• 
• Variable Frequency operation:
• The chopping or switching frequency (f) is varied. Either on time t1 or
off time t2 is kept constant. This is called frequency modulation. It
generates harmonics at unpredictable frequencies and the filter design
would be difficult.
Numerical:
• The converter has a resistive load of R = 10Ω and input voltage Vs=
220V. When the converter switch remains on, its voltage drop is Vch =
2V and the chopping frequency is f= 1 KHz. If the duty cycle is 50%,
determine
• Average output voltage
• The rms output voltage
• Converter efficiency
• Effective input resistance
Solution:
• Average output voltage
• Va = K (Vs-Vch) = 0.5(220-2) = 109 V
• The rms output voltage
• Vo(rms) = (Vs-Vch) = 154.15 V
• The output power of chopper:

• Po = = = = 2376.2 W
• The input power to the converter
• Pi = = = K = 2398 W
• The converter efficiency = x100% = 99.09%

• Effective input resistance

• Ri = = = 20 Ω
•
Ac to Ac Conversion:
1. Ac voltage controller
2. Cycloconverter

Ac Voltage controller:
If a thyristor switch is connected between ac supply and load , the
power flow can be controlled by varying the rms value of ac voltage
applied to the load and this type of power circuit is known as an ac
voltage controller
Application:
industrial heating, light controls, speed control of polyphase induction
motors, etc
• For power transfer, two types of control are normally used.
• On-off control
• Phase –angle control

• On-off control
• In on-off control, thyristor switches connect the load to the ac sources for a
few cycles of input voltage and then disconnect it for another few cycles.
• Phase- angle Control:
• In phase control, thyristor switches connect the load to the ac source for a
portion of each cycle of input voltage
Single phase Bidirectional controllers with
resistive load:
• If V = Vs sinωt is the input voltage, and the delay angles of thyristors
T1 and T2 are equal ( α2 =π+ α1), the rms output voltage can be found
from
• Vo(rms) = = Vs
Cycloconverter:
• The ac voltage controllers provide a variable output voltage, but the
frequency of the output voltage is fixed and in addition the harmonic
content is high, especially at a low output voltage range.
• A variable output voltage at variable frequency can be obtained from
two-stage conversions: fixed ac to variable dc (eg controlled rectifier)
and variable dc to variable ac at variable frequency ( eg inverter).
• However, cycloconverters can eliminate the need of one or more
intermediate converters.
• A cycloconverter is a direct frequency changer that converts ac power
at one frequency to ac power at another frequency by ac-ac
conversion, without an intermediate link.
Single Phase Cycloconverter:
• This converter consists of back-to-back
connection of two full-wave rectifier circuits.
• Note that the firing angles are named as αP
for the positive converter and αN for the
negative converter

The frequency of the output voltage, Vo in above figure is 4

times less than that of Vs, the input voltage, i.e. fo/fi=1/4