SRC protection techniques

Learning outcomes
Understand all SCR protection methods
Understand benefits of protection
Reliable operation of a thyristor demands that its specified
ratings are not exceeded.
In practice, a thyristor may be subjected to overvoltages or
overcurrents. During SCR turn-on, di/dt may be prohibitively
large.
There may be false triggering of SCR by high value of dv/dt.
A spurious signal across gate-cathode terminals may lead
to unwanted turn-on.
A thyristor must be protected against all such abnormal
conditions for satisfactory and reliable operation of SCR
circuit and the equipment.
SCRs are very delicate devices, their protection against
abnormal operating conditions is, therefore, essential.
The object of this section is to discuss various techniques
adopted for the protection of SCRs.
di/dt protection.
dv/dtprotection.
SCRs are very delicate devices and so they must
be protected against abnormal operating
conditions. Various protection of SCR are

di/dt Protection
dv/dt Protection
Over voltage Protection
Over Current Protection
 di/dt protection

When a thyristor is forward biased and is turned on by

a gate pulse, conduction of anode current begins in
the immediate neighbourhood of the gate-cathode
junction.
Thereafter, the current spreads across the whole area
of junction.
The thyristor design permits the spread of conduction
to the whole junction area as rapidly as possible.
However, if the rate of rise of anode current, i.e. di/dt,
is large as compared to the spread velocity of carriers,
local hot spots will be formed near the gate
connection on account of high current density.
This localized heating may destroy the thyristor.
Therefore, the rate of rise of anode current at the
time of turn-on must be kept below the specified
limiting value.
The value of di/dt can be maintained below
acceptable limit by using a small inductor, called
di/dt inductor, in series with the anode circuit.
Typical di/dt limit values of SCRs are 20-500 A/µ
sec.
Local spot heating can also be avoided by ensuring
that the conduction spreads to the whole area as
rapidly as possible.
This can be achieved by applying a gate current
nearer to (but never greater than) the maximum
specified gate current.
 A thyristor requires a minimum time to spread the current conduction
uniformly throughout the junctions
Otherwise, a localized “hot-spot” heating may occur due to high current
density.

di/dt Protection:-

 di/dt is the rate of change of current in a device.

 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. (OR) The di/dt value must be maintained below a threshold
(limiting) value.
 This is done by means of connecting an inductor in series with the thyristor.
· The inductance L opposes the high di/dt variations.
· When the current variation is high, the inductor smooths it
and protects the SCR from damage. (Though di/dt variation
is high, the inductor 'L' smooths it because it takes some
time to charge). L ≥ [Vs / (di/dt)]
dv/dt Protection:-
dv/dt is the rate of charge of voltage in SCR.


We know that 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.
SNUBBER CIRCUIT:-
A snubber circuit consists of a series combination of resistance Rs and
capacitance Cs in parallel with the thyristor as shown in Fig.
Strictly speaking, a capacitor Cs in parallel with the device is sufficient to
prevent unwanted dv/dt triggering of the SCR.
When switch S is closed, a sudden voltage appears across the circuit.
Capacitor Cs behaves like a short circuit, therefore voltage across SCR is
zero.
With the passage of time, voltage across Cs builds up at a slow rate such
that dv/dt across Cs and therefore across SCR is less than the specified
maximum dv/dt rating of the device.
Here the question arises that if Cs is enough to prevent accidental turn-on
of the device by dv/dt, what is the need of putting Rs in series with Cs ?
The answer to this is as under.
Before SCR is fired by gate pulse, Cs charges to full voltage
Vs. When the SCR is turned on, capacitor discharges
through the SCR and sends a current equal to Vs /
(resistance of local path formed by Cs and SCR).
As this resistance is quite low, the turn-on di/dt will tend to
be excessive and as a result, SCR may be destroyed. In
order to limit the magnitude of discharge current, a
resistance Rs is inserted in series with Cs as shown in Fig.
Now when SCR is turned on, initial discharge current Vs/Rs
is relatively small and turn-on di/dt is reduced.
In actual practice ; Rs, Cs and the load circuit parameters
should be such that dv/dt across Cs during its charging is
less than the specified dv/dt rating of the SCR and discharge
current at the turn-on of SCR is within reasonable limits.
Normally, Rs Cs and load circuit parameters form an
underdamped circuit so that dv/dt is limited to acceptable
values.
 The snubber Circuit is a series combination of resistor 'R' and capacitor 'C'.
 They are connected across the thyristor to be protected.
 The capacitor 'C' is used to limit the dv/dt across the SCR.
 The resistor 'R' is used to limit high discharging current through the SCR.
 When switch S is closed, the capacitor 'C' behaves as a short-circuit.
 Therefore voltage across SCR is zero.
 As time increases, voltage across 'C' increases at a slow rate.
 Therefore dv/dt across 'C' and SCR is less than maximum dv/dt rating of the device.
 The capacitor charges to full voltage Vs; after which the gate is triggered, and SCR is turned ON
and high current flows through SCR.
 As di/dt is high, it may damage the SCR.To avoid this, the resistor R in series with 'C' will limit
the magnitude of di/dt.
 The technique of 'snubbing' can apply to any switching circuit, not only to thyristor/triac circuits.
 The rate of rise of turn-off voltage is determined by the time constant
RLC. Where RL is the circuit minimum load resistance, for instance the cold resistance of a heater
or lamp, the winding resistance of a motor or the primary resistance of a transformer.
Overvoltage Protection:-
• Overvoltage may result in false turn ON of the
device (or) damage the device.
• SCR is subjected to internal and external over
voltage.
Internal Overvoltage:
• The reverse recovery current of the SCR decays at
a very fast rate. ie, high di/dt.
• So a voltage surge is produced whose magnitude
is L(di/dt).
External Overvoltage:
• These are caused by the interruption of current
flow in the inductive circuit and also due to lightning
strokes on the lines feeding the SCR systems.
• The effect of overvoltage is reduced by using
Snubber circuits and Non-Linear Resistors called Voltage
Clamping Devices.
Voltage Clamping Device:
• It is a non-linear resistor called as VARISTOR (VARIable
resiSTOR) connected across the SCR.
• The resistance of varistor will decrease with increase in
voltage.
• During normal operation, varistor has high Resistance and
draws only small leakage current.
• When high voltage appears, it operates in low resistance
region and the surge energy is dissipated across the resistance
by producing a virtual short-circuit across the SCR.
Over Current Protection:

In an SCR due to over-current, the junction temperature exceeds the
rated value and the device gets damaged.
Over-current is interrupted by conventional fuses and circuit


breakers.
The fault current must be interrupted before the SCR gets damaged


and only the faulty branches of the network should be isolated.

Circuit breaker has long tripping time. So it is used for protecting


SCR against continuous over loads (or) against surge currents of long
duration.
Fast acting current limiting fuse is used to protect SCR against large


surge currents of very short duration.

 SCR has high surge current ability.
 SCR is used in electronic crowbar circuit for overcurrent protection of
power converter.
 In this protection, an additional SCR is connected across the supply which
is known as 'Crowbar SCR'.
 Current sensing resistor detects the value of converter current.
 If it exceeds preset value, then gate trigger circuits turn ON the crowbar
SCR.
 So the input terminals are short-circuit by SCR and thus it bypass the
converter over current.
 After some time the main fuse interrupts the fault current.
High Temperature Protection
With the increase in the temperature of the junction, insulation
may get failed. So we have to take proper measures to limit the
temperature rise.
Protective Measure : We can achieve this by mounting the
thyristor on heat sink which is mainly made by high thermal
conductivity metals like aluminium (Al), Copper (Cu) etc.
Mainly aluminium (Al) is used due to its low cost. There are
several types of mounting techniques for SCR such as – Lead-
mounting, stud-mounting, Bolt-down mounting, press-fit
mounting, press-pack mounting etc.
Overall Protection of a Thyristor
Lead mounting : In such mounting technique housing of SCR
itself is used as heat radiator. Hence no need of additional heat
zink arrangement. Hence, this technique of thyristor Protection
is generally used for low current application, normally less than
one ampere.
Stud mounting : The anode of the thyristor is in the form of
threaded stud which is screwed to a metalling heat sink block.
Bolt-down mounting : Here the device is connected to the
heat sink with the help of nut-bolt mechanism. It is mainly
used in small and medium rating circuit.
Press fit mounting : This kind of mounting is obtained by
inserting the whole SCR into the metallic block. It is used
in high rating circuit.
Press-Pack mounting : This kind of mounting for thyristor
protection is obtained by sandwiching the thyristor
between to heat sink with the help of clamps. It is used for
very high rating circuit.
Gate Protection of Thyristor
Like thyristor, Gate circuit should also be protected from over
voltages and over currents. Over voltages in the gate circuit can
cause false triggering and over current can cause high junction
temperature.
Protective Measure : Over voltages thyristor protection is
achieved by using a zener diode and a resistor can be used to
protect the gate circuit from over current. Noise in gate circuit can
also cause false triggering which can be avoided by using a resistor
and a capacitor in parallel. A diode (D) may be connected in series
or in parallel with the gate to protect it from high reverse voltage.
Another application for SCRs is in crowbar
circuits (which get their name from the idea
of putting a crowbar across a voltage
source and shorting it out!)
The purpose of a crowbar circuit is to shut
down a power supply in case of over-
voltage.
Once triggered, the SCR latches on.
The SCR can handle a large current, which
causes the fuse (or circuit breaker) to
open.