EE1018 POWER ELECTRONICS

A.LAVANYA A.P/EEE

OBJECTIVE
Construction, Principle of operation - Static and
dynamic characteristics of Power MOSFET

Power MOSFET
A power MOSFET is a specific type of metal oxide
semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) designed to
handle significant power levels.

Construction :
Power MOSFET has three terminals drain, source and gate.
Arrow direction indicates the direction of electron flow.

MOSFET is a voltage controlled device

MOSFET is a unipolar device-majority carriers.
Gate impedance is extremely high- 109 ohm.
MOSFET is free from secondary breakdown problem.
Used in low power high frequency converters
Power MOSFETs are of two types n-channel enhancement
MOSFET and p-channel enhancement MOSFET

Symbol

N-channel DMOS Power MOSFET

Construction
Planar diffused n-channel MOSFET(DMOS)
structure.
n+ substrate, high resistivity n- layer epitaxially
grown.
Thickness of n- layer-determines voltage blocking
capability of the device.
n+ substrate, a metal layer is deposited to form
drain terminal.
p regions are diffused in the epitaxially grown nlayer.
Regions are diffused in p regions layer.
SiO2is added for metallic source and gate
terminals

Operation
Gate voltage-zero and VDD is present
n-p Junctions-reverse biased-no current flows
from drain to source.
Gate voltage-positive with respect to source,
an electric field is established and electrons
form n channel in the regions.
Current from drain to source is established
With increase in gate voltage drain current also
increases

Transfer characteristics

Output characteristics

Switching characteristics

Construction- IGBT

IGBT Structure-equivalent circuit

Static characteristics

Switching characteristics

THYRISTOR
A thyristor is a four layer 3 junction p-n-p-n
semiconductor device consisting of at least three p-n

junctions, functioning as an electrical switch for high

power operations.
It has three basic terminals, namely the anode,
cathode and the gate mounted on the semiconductor
layers of the device.

Thyristor

Modes of operation

Static V-I characteristics of Thyristor

Thyristor turn-on methods

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Forward voltage triggering

Gate triggering
dv/dt triggering
Temperature triggering
Light triggering

Variation of forward break over

voltage with gate current

Switching characteristics

Switching characteristics during turn on

Turn ON mechanism: When a positive gate signal is applied to a forward biased SCR, the
transition of SCR from forward blocking state to conducting state is called as
turn ON mechanism.
The time taken for SCR to traverse from the blocking state to conducting
state is called as turn on time.
Turn on time is divided into 3 periods.
1.

Delay time td

2.

Rise time tr

3.

Spread time tp

tON = td + tr + tp
td = delay time, tr = rise time, tp or ts = peak time (or) spread time

Delay time :Delay time td

When the gate current reaches 0.9IG the anode current IA starts increasing
and reaches 0.1IA (10% of its max value)
The time taken for anode current to reach 0.1IA is called as delay time(td).
In other words, it is the time taken for anode voltage to fall from VA to
0.9VA
The anode current further increases and reaches 0.9IA.
Rise time :Rise time tr
The time taken by the anode current to increases from 0.1IA to 0.9IA is
called as rise time(tr).
In other words, it is the time taken by the anode voltage to fall from
0.9VA to 0.1VA
Spread time :Spread Time or Peak time (ts or tp)
It is time taken by the anode current to rise from ( 0.9IA to maximum value
of IA) 90% to 100% of its full value. (or)
It is the time taken by VA to fall from 0.1VA to its ON state voltage
drop(near by zero).
During this time the conduction spreads over the entire cross-section of
cathode and so electrons spread over all the junctions.

Switching characteristics during turn off

Turn OFF mechanism:
Turning OFF an SCR means bringing the SCR from conducting state
to blocking state.
To turn off an SCR two things are to be done
(1) Reduce the anode current below its holding current level.
(2) Application of reverse voltage.
When the anode current is zero, if we apply forward voltage to the
SCR, the device will not be able to block this forward voltage due to
the fact that excess charge carriers are still at the junctions, so the
device will start conducting even when the gate signal is not
applied.
In order to avoid this, reverse biasing of SCR is done to remove the
excess charge carriers from all four layers.
The turn OFF time is defined as the time from the instant the anode
current becomes zero to the instant SCR reaches its forward
blocking ability.

Turn off time

tOFF = trr + tgr

trr = Reverse recovery time

tgr =Gate recovery time
Reverse recovery process is the removal of excessive charge carries from
the top and bottom layers of SCR.
At t1; current IA = 0
After t1; IA build up in the reverse direction, due to the charge carriers
stored in the four layers.
Reverse recovery current removes the excessive carriers from junctions
J1 and J3 during the time t1 to t3. (Reverse recovery current flows due
sweeping out of holes from top p-layer and electrons from bottom n layer)

Reverse Recovery Time (trr):-

It is the time taken for the removal of excessive carriers from top and bottom
layer of SCR.
At t2: When nearly 60% of charges are removed from the outer two layers, the
reverse recovery current decreases.
This decaying causes a reverse voltage to be applied across the SCR.
At t3 all excessive carriers from J1 and J3 is removed.
The reverse voltage across SCR removes the excessive carriers from junction J2.
Gate recovery process is the removal of excessive carriers from J2 junction by
application of reverse voltage.
Time taken for removal of trapped charges from J2 is called gate recovery
time(tgr).
At t4 all the carriers are removed and the device moves to the forward blocking

mode.

Converter Vs inverter grade SCR

Converter grade SCR

Inverter grade SCR

Slow turn-off time(50100usec)

Fast turn-off time(3-50usec)

cheaper

costlier

Used in Phase controlled

Inverters, Choppers.
rectifiers, AC voltage controllers

Two transistor model of thyristor

 IC is collector current, IE is emitter current, ICBO is forward leakage current, is

common base forward current gain and relationship between IC and IB is
Where, IB is base current and is common emitter forward current gain. Lets for transistor T1
this relation holds
And that for transistor T2

Now, by the analysis of two transistors model we can get anode current,
From equation (i) and (ii), we get,

If applied gate current is Ig then cathode current will be the summation of anode
current and gate current
By substituting this value of Ik in (iii) we get,

Thyristor protection circuit

For reliable operation of SCR, it should be operated
within the specific ratings.
SCRs are very delicate devices and so they must be
protected against abnormal operating conditions.
Various protection of SCR are
1. di/dt Protection
2. dv/dt Protection
3. Over voltage Protection
4. Over Current Protection

Circuit componentsshowing thyristor protection

di/dt protection
When SCR is forward biased and is turned ON by the gate signal, the anode current flows.
The anode current requires some time to spread inside the device. (Spreading of charge
carriers)
But if the rate of rise of anode current(di/dt) is greater than the spread velocity of charge
carriers then local hot spots is created near the gate due to increased current density.

This localised heating may damage the device.

Local spot heating is avoided by ensuring that the conduction spreads to the whole area very
rapidly.
This is done by means of connecting an inductor in series with the thyristor.

dv/dt protection
dv/dt is the rate of change of voltage in SCR.
When a thyristor is in forward blocking state then only J2
junction is reverse biased which acts as a capacitor having

constant capacitance iC=C.dv/dt. ie, when dv/dt is high, iC is

high.
This high current(iC) may turn ON SCR even when gate current
is zero. This is called as dv/dt turn ON or false turn ON of SCR.
To protect the thyristor against false turn ON or against high

dv/dt a Snubber Circuit is used.

dv/dt protection
dv/dt is the rate of change of voltage in SCR.
When a thyristor is in forward blocking state then only J2
junction is reverse biased which acts as a capacitor having

constant capacitance iC=C.dv/dt. ie, when dv/dt is high, iC is

high.
This high current(iC) may turn ON SCR even when gate current
is zero. This is called as dv/dt turn ON or false turn ON of SCR.
To protect the thyristor against false turn ON or against high

dv/dt a Snubber Circuit is used.

Thyristor protection circuit

di/dt protection
If the rate of rise of anode current is large as
compared to the spread velocity of carriersLocalised heating
Prevented by Small inductor
di/dt limit value of SCRs 20-500A/sec

dv/dt protection
False operation of thyristor circuits.
20-500V/sec
Snubber circuit

Design of snubber circuit

 Voltage across Cs build up at a slow rate such

that dv/dt across Cs, therefore across SCR is
less than the specified maximum dv/dt rating
of the device.
What is the need of connecting Rs in series
with Cs?
To limit turn in di/dt

Overvoltage protection
Overvoltage transients- main cause for thyristor failure
Internal overvoltages:commutation
The reverse recovery current rises to peak value at which
time the SCR begins to block.
Because of the series inductance L of the SCR circuit, large
transient voltage L di/dt is produced.
External Overvoltages:lightning strokes
When a thyristor converter is fed through a transformer,
voltage transients are likely to occur when the transformer
primary is energised or deenergised.

Suppression of overvoltage protection

How it is Protected ?
The effect of over-voltages can be minimized by
using non-linear resistors called voltage clamping

devices like metal oxide varistor.

At the 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.

Over current protection

Overcurrent protection
Thyristors have small thermal time constants.
Over current mainly occurs due to different types of
faults in the circuit,short circuits or surge currents.
Due to over current i2R loss will increase and high
generation of heat may take place that can exceed
the permissible limit and burn the device.

How it is Protected ?
: SCR can be protected from over current by
using CB and fast acting current limiting fuses
(FACLF). CB are used for protection of thyristor
against continuous overloads or against surge
currents of long duration as a CB has long
tripping time. But fast-acting fuses is used for
protecting SCR against high surge current of
very short duration.

Electronic crowbar protection