SCR Firing Circuits
SCR Firing Circuits
SCR Firing Circuits
INTRODUCTION
As we know various triggering methods to turn the SCR, gate triggering is the most efficient and reliable method.
Most of the control applications use this type of triggering because the desired instant of SCR turning is possible
with gate triggering method.
The various firing circuits of SCR.
Resistance Firing Circuit
Resistance – Capacitance (RC) Firing Circuit
UJT Firing Circuit
RESISTANCE FIRING CIRCUIT
The circuit below shows the resistance triggering of SCR where it is employed to drive the load from the input AC
supply.
Resistance and diode combination circuit acts as a gate control circuitry to switch the SCR in the desired
condition.
WORKING
SCR is forward biased and doesn’t conduct until its gate current is more than minimum gate current of the SCR.
When the gate current is applied by varying the resistance R2.
SCR is turned ON, when gate current is more than the minimum value of gate current. Hence the load current
starts flowing through the SCR.
The SCR remains ON until the anode current is equal to the holding current.
To switch OFF, applied voltage should be zero, so load current also become zero and SCR acts as open switch.
Resistance R1 limits the current flowing through the gate terminal and its value is such that the gate current should
not exceed the maximum gate current.
The diode protects the gate drive circuit from reverse gate voltage during the negative half cycle of the input.
LIMITATION
It is the simplest and economical type of triggering but limited for few applications due to its disadvantages.
Its limitation is the triggering angle is limited to 90 degrees only.
It means that, applied voltage is maximum at 90 degrees so the gate current has to reach minimum gate current
value somewhere between zero to 90 degrees.
RESISTANCE – CAPACITANCE (RC) FIRING CIRCUIT
The limitation of resistance firing circuit can be overcome by the RC triggering circuit.
It provides the firing angle control from 0 to 180 degrees.
It is obtained by changing the phase and amplitude of the gate current, a large variation of firing angle is obtained
using this circuit.
Its circuit consisting of two diodes with an RC network connected to turn the SCR.
By varying the variable resistance, triggering or firing angle is controlled in a full positive half cycle of the input
signal.
WORKING
During the negative half cycle of the input signal, capacitor charges with lower plate positive through diode D2 up
to the maximum supply voltage Vmax.
This voltage remains at -Vmax across the capacitor till supply voltage attains zero crossing.
During the positive half cycle of the input.
SCR becomes forward biased and the capacitor starts charging through variable resistance to the triggering voltage
value of the SCR.
When the capacitor charging voltage is equal to the gate trigger voltage, SCR is turned ON.
Therefore the capacitor voltage is helpful for triggering the SCR even after 90 degrees of the input waveform.
diode D1 prevents the negative voltage between the gate and cathode during the negative half cycle of the input
through diode D2.
WAVEFORM- RC FIRING CIRCUIT
UJT FIRING CIRCUIT
at base terminal-1 .
The pulse output at the base terminal-1 is used to