UTAR

Power Electronics and

Devices
THE SILICON CONTROLLED RECTIFIER

BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING (HONS) ELECTRICAL &

ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING

Dr Chew Kuew Wai

Contents
Objective..........................................................................................................................................2

Motivation........................................................................................................................................2

Equipment........................................................................................................................................2

Procedure:........................................................................................................................................3

Part 1............................................................................................................................................3

Part 2............................................................................................................................................4

Part 3............................................................................................................................................5

Pre Experimental Quiz.....................................................................................................................5

Post Experimental Quiz...................................................................................................................7

Results..............................................................................................................................................9

Part I.............................................................................................................................................9

Part II...........................................................................................................................................9

Discussion......................................................................................................................................10

Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12

Works Cited...................................................................................................................................13

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Objective
To study the performance characteristics of Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR).

Motivation
The Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) acts like a normally off switch. To turn it on we have to
apply a trigger to the gate. Once on, the SCR acts like a closed switch. The trigger may be
removed but the SCR remains closed. The only way to open the SCR is to reduce the supply
voltage to a low value near to zero.

Equipment
1. Power supply: adjustable from 0 to 15 V.

2. Red or any LED

3. Transistors: 2N3904, 2N3906

4. SCR: BTA 06.

5. ½ W resistors: 2 x 330 , 470 , 2 x 1K, 10K, 100

6. Potentiometer : 1K

7. zener diode

8. Multimeter ( analog or digital)

9. Oscilloscope

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Procedure:

Part 1

Figure 1: Part 1

1. The circuit in Figure 1 is connected with the switch open and a Vcc of + 15V. The LED
should be off. If not, the supply voltage is reduced to zero then back to + 15V.

2. With the LED off, the voltage at point A and the LED current is measured and recorded.

3. The switch is closed, the LED should turn on.

4. The switch is then opened. The LED should remain on.

5. With the LED on, the voltage at point A is measured and recorded. The LED current is
also measured.

6. With LED on, the supply voltage is reduced until the LED goes off. Then the supply
voltage is increased and notices that the LED remains off.

7. The switch is closed momentarily and then opened. The LED should be on.

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Part 2

Figure 2: Part 2

1. The circuit shown in Figure 2 is connected with R1 reduced to zero.

2. Vcc is adjusted to + V. The LED should be off. V2 and the LED current is then measure
and recorded

3. V1 is slowly increased until LED just comes on. V2 and the LED current is measure and
recorded.

4. The trigger current is assumed to be 7 mA and the gate trigger voltage is assumed to be
0.75 V. When the LED is off, the value of V1 needed to turn on the LED is calculated.
The answer is recorded.

5. R1 is reduced to zero so V1 = 0. V1 is then slowly increased until the LED just comes on.
V1 and the LED current is measured and recorded.

6. The holding current is assumed to be 6 mA. The value of Vcc where SCR turns off is
calculated and recorded.

7. The LED is lid by increasing the V1 with the help of R1. The V1 is then reduced to zero.
Vcc is slowly decreased until the LED just goes out. The value of Vcc is measured and
recorded.

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Part 3

Figure 3: Application of crowbar circuit

1. The crowbar circuit of Figure 3 is connected.

2. A dc voltmeter is connected across the 1 K resistor. It should read approximately 5V.

3. The supply voltage is slowly increased while watching the voltmeter reading. The
crowbar should activate somewhere above 6.2V. When it does, the load voltage will
drop to a low value.

4. The supply voltage is reduced to zero. Then step 3 is repeated. The operation of
crowbar is examined and studied.

Pre Experimental Quiz

1. What is silicon controlled rectifier?

The SCR (silicon controlled rectifier), or thyristor, is one of the original high power

semiconductor switching technologies. The SCR is a four layer device, npnp from top

to bottom (or cathode to anode). It is a latching device; once it is turned on, or "fired,"

it remains on until the current is removed. For this reason, its primary application is

phase-control of ac signals.[CITATION Int \l 1033 ]

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 Figure 4: Structure of a thyristor or silicon controlled rectifier (SCR)

2. Draw the voltage-current characteristics of an SCR

Figure 5: voltage-current characteristics of an SCR

3. State the difference between an SCR and a diode.

A diode is a solid state passive device that will only allow current to flow in one and
only one direction, i.e. from anode to cathode.

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 A Thyristor behaves exactly like a diode except that in order for current to flow it
must "see" current at its gate; if it does not see current (i.e. logic 0 or ground) then
current is not allowed to flow from its anode to cathode.

Since the Thyristor has a gate which controls its output it is not a passive device like
the diode

4. Can you turn off an SCR by using a trigger to the gate pulse?

No. For the SCR to turn OFF the current flow through the device must be interrupted,
or drop below the Minimum Holding Current ( I H ), for a short period of time
(typically 10 -20 µs) which is known as the Commutated-Turn-Off-Time ( t q ).
[ CITATION Elw82 \l 1033 ]

Post Experimental Quiz

1. When the LED of figure 1 is on , the voltage from point A to ground will be

approximately 0 V

2. After the LED of figure 1 comes on, the current through it is approximately 15.0mA

3. When the switch of figure 1 is closed, the voltage across the lower 1K is 1.364V

4. When the switch of figure 1 is closed, the current through the Q2 is closest to 15.0mA

5. After the LED of figure 2 comes on, the only way to make it go off is to remove the

power supply, Vcc which will stop the regenerative effect of SCR.

6. The calculated V1 of table 2 for triggering is closest to 3.06V

7. When VCC is 12V and the LED is off in figure2, V2 is equal to 12V

8. What is meant by the term “Latch” as it applies to the SCR?

Since SCR is a controllable ON but uncontrollable OFF device, once its gate is

activated by sending a pulse to it, it will remain as ON as long as the power supply is

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 supplying current higher than its holding current requirement. As it’s always ON

due to the regenerative effect, we say it is in the “latch” state.

9. Draw the circuit configuration of a latch using mechanical relay and transistor.

Figure 6: latching relay circuit diagram

Circuit shown in Figure 6 consists of two transistors and a few other passive components.
It’s also a latch circuit and latches the relay immediately on receiving a positive trigger
voltage at the base of the NPN transistor. [ CITATION Swa10 \l 1033 ]

10. After an SCR is turned on and anode current is flowing, how do you turn it off?

Figure 7: turn of SCR

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 When the anode current is reduced below the level of the holding current, the SCR turns
off. However, it must be noted that rated anode current is usually larger than 1,000 times
the holding value. Since the anode voltage remains positive with respect to the cathode in
a dc circuit, the anode current can only be reduced by opening the line switch S,
increasing the load impedance RL or shunting part of the load current through a circuit
parallel to the SCR, i.e. short-circuiting the device. [ CITATION JOJ09 \l 1033 ]

Results

Part I

LE Measured V A Measured I LED (mA)

D (V)
Off 13.38 0
On 0.85 11.94

Part II

(a) LED off:

Measured V 2 = 13.62 V

Measured I LED = 0

(b) LED on:

Measured V 2 = 0.91 V

Measured I LED = 34.28 mA

(c) To make LED on (triggering):

Calculated V 1 = 3.06 V

V 1−V gate trigger=I gate trigger R 2

V 1−0.75=( 7 ×10−3 ) (330)

V 1=3.06 V

Measured V 1 = 5.08 V

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 Measured I LED = 33.4 mA

(d) To measure SCR holding voltage (holding):

Calculated V CC = 13.02 V

V CC =V CC ( original)−I hold R 3

V CC =15−( 6 ×10−3 ) (330)

V CC =13.02V

Measured V CC = 12V

Discussion
In Part 1, the experiment was done according to Figure 1. So when the switch is closed, current
conducts and the LED is ON. Also, when the switch is off, the LED is still ON. But when we
remove V cc , the LED will be off. Such observations explain the behavior of a SCR and Figure 1
is its BJT equivalent circuit.

Figure 8: Silicon controlled rectifier (SCR) doping profile and BJT equivalent circuit

A positive trigger signal is applied between the gate and cathode terminals. This causes the NPN
equivalent transistor to conduct. The collector of the conducting NPN transistor pulls low,
moving the PNP base towards its collector voltage, which causes the PNP to conduct. The
collector of the conducting PNP pulls high, moving the NPN base in the direction of its collector.

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This positive feedback (regeneration) reinforces the NPN's already conducting state. Moreover,
the NPN will now conduct even in the absence of a gate signal. Once an SCR conducts, it
continues for as long as a positive anode voltage is present. For the DC battery shown, this is
forever. However, SCR's are most often used with an alternating current or pulsating DC supply.
Moreover, most practical SCR circuits depend on the AC cycle going to zero to cutoff or
commutate the SCR. [ CITATION Thy10 \l 1033 ]

In Part 2, the experiment was done with a real SCR instead of its equivalent circuit and the main
concern is about the holding current, I H .With the circuit OFF, we adjust the V cc slowly until the
LED is on. So that is the minimum current which must pass through the device in order for it to
remain in the ON state. After that, we decrease the V cc slowly until the LED is OFF. By doing
this, we know that in order for the device to ON, the current passing through the SCR must be
above the I H . Also, this could be a method to off a SCR.

In Part 3, the circuit shown in Figure 3 is set up. Initially, the voltage measured across the 1k Ω
resistor, V 1 k Ω is 5 V and when we increase the supply voltage, so do theV 1 k Ω. However, when we
keep increasing it until it exceeds 6 V; we noticed the value of V 1 k Ω keep dropping until its
nearing 0 V.

So by referring to Figure 3, the V 1 k Ω is designed to be at maximum of 6.2 V as indicated in the

lab sheet. So, if the V 1 k Ωexceeds the maximum value, the zener diode, 1N753 will conduct and
the current through resistor 100 Ω provides a voltage across it, which triggers the gate of the
thyristor. The large current through the thyristor blows the fuse and protects the load.
[ CITATION Thy101 \l 1033 ]

∴ This shows that that crowbar circuit can act as a power protection for electrical devices.

A crowbar circuit is a power supply protection circuit that rapidly short-circuits ("crowbars") the
supply line if the voltage and/or current exceeds defined limits. In practice, the resulting short
blows a fuse or triggers other protection, effectively shutting down the supply. It is usually
achieved by an SCR or other silicon device, or by a mechanical shorting device. Probably named
for the concept of using a big metal bar to mechanically provide the short circuit, as might be

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used done in a high-current application; or from the appearance of a crowbar circuit's I-V curve.
[ CITATION Max10 \l 1033 ]

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Conclusion
SCR's are the most prevalent member of the thyristor four layer diode family.

A positive pulse applied to the gate of an SCR triggers it into conduction. Conduction continues
even if the gate pulse is removed. Conduction only ceases when the anode to cathode voltage
drops to zero or when the current flowing through it is lower than I H .

SCR's are most often used with an AC supply (or pulsating DC) because of the continuous
conduction. [ CITATION Thy10 \l 1033 ]

By completing this lab session, we are able to understand the behavior of SCR more and could
apply it in our future project.

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Works Cited
Gilliland, E. (1982, June). Silicon Controlled Rectifier . Retrieved from Kilowatt Classroom
Electrical Training Seminars:
http://www.kilowattclassroom.com/Archive/SCRArticle.pdf

International Rectifier. (2010). Application Training Guide. Retrieved from

http://www.irf.com/technical-info/guide/device.html

JOJO. (2009, SEPTEMBER 14). SCR Turning OFF methods. Retrieved from Electronic
Circuits-Circuit Diagram-Electronics Projects-Design: http://www.circuitstoday.com/scr-
turning-off-methods

Majumdar, S. (2010, Apr 23). Latching Relay Circuit Diagrams – Swagatam-Majumdar's Blog
at the Hubfolio on Bright Hub. Retrieved from Bright Hub:
http://www.brighthub.com/hubfolio/swagatam-
majumdar/blog/archive/2010/03/22/latching-relay-circuit-diagrams.aspx

Maxim/Dallas Semiconductor. (n.d.). Glossary Definition for crowbar. Retrieved November 15,
2010, from Analog, linear, and mixed-signal devices from Maxim/Dallas Semiconductor:
http://www.maxim-ic.com/glossary/definitions.mvp/term/crowbar/gpk/1039

Thyristor, Triac and Diac - Electronic Tutorials. (n.d.). Retrieved November 15, 2010, from
Electronics Resource, Electronic Hobby Projects & Circuits,:
http://www.hobbyprojects.com/thyristor_triac_and_diac/thyristor_as_a_crowbar.html

Thyristors : SOLID-STATE DEVICE THEORY. (n.d.). Retrieved 2010, from All About Circuits :
Free Electric Circuits Textbooks: http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_3/chpt_2/11.html

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