Semiconductor

-A semiconductor is a substance, usually a solid chemical element or compound

that can conduct electricity under some conditions but not others, making it a good
medium for the control of electrical current. Its conductance varies depending on
the current or voltage applied to a control electrode, or on the intensity of
irradiation by infrared (IR), visible light, ultraviolet (UV), or X rays.

The specific properties of a semiconductor depend on the impurities, or dopants,

added to it. An N-type semiconductor carries current mainly in the form of
negatively-charged electrons, in a manner similar to the conduction of current in a
wire.

-A semiconductor device can perform the function of a vacuum tube having

hundreds of times its volume. A single integrated circuit (IC), such as a
microprocessor chip, can do the work of a set of vacuum tubes that would fill a large
building and require its own electric generating plant.

-materials such as silicon (Si), germanium (Ge) and gallium arsenide (GaAs), have
electrical properties somewhere in the middle, between those of a conductor and
an insulator. They are not good conductors nor good insulators (hence their name
semi-conductors). They have very few free electrons because their atoms are
closely grouped together in a crystalline pattern called a crystal lattice but
electrons are still able to flow, but only under special conditions.

The ability of semiconductors to conduct electricity can be greatly improved by

replacing or adding certain donor or acceptor atoms to this crystalline structure
thereby, producing more free electrons than holes or vice versa. That is by adding a
small percentage of another element to the base material, either silicon or
germanium.

-The most commonly used semiconductor basics material by far is silicon. Silicon
has four valence electrons in its outermost shell which it shares with its
neighbouring silicon atoms to form full orbitals of eight electrons. The structure of
the bond between the two silicon atoms is such that each atom shares one electron
with its neighbour making the bond very stable.

As there are very few free electrons available to move around the silicon crystal,
crystals of pure silicon (or germanium) are therefore good insulators, or at the very
least very high value resistors.

Silicon atoms are arranged in a definite symmetrical pattern making them a

crystalline solid structure. A crystal of pure silica (silicon dioxide or glass) is
generally said to be an intrinsic crystal (it has no impurities) and therefore has no
free electrons.

But simply connecting a silicon crystal to a battery supply is not enough to extract
an electric current from it. To do that we need to create a positive and a
negative pole within the silicon allowing electrons and therefore electric current to
flow out of the silicon. These poles are created by doping the silicon with certain
impurities.

Intrinsic semiconductors

-An intrinsic semiconductor is an undoped semiconductor. This means that holes in

the valence band are vacancies created by electrons that have been thermally
excited to the conduction band, as opposed to doped semiconductors where holes
or electrons are supplied by a foreign atom acting as an impurity.

Diagram showing the electronic bonds in an intrinsic semiconductor (Si)

-those semiconductors in which impurities are missing are known as intrinsic

semiconductors. The electrical conductivity of the semiconductor depends upon the
total no of electrons shifted to the conduction band from the valence band. This
phenomenon is called as intrinsic conductivity.

The most common examples of the intrinsic semiconductors are silicon and
germanium. Both these semiconductors are used frequently in manufacturing of
transistors and electronic products manufacturing. The electronic configuration of
both these semiconductors is shown below:
2 2 6 2 6 10 2 2
Germanium -1s 2s 2p 3s 3p 3d 4s 4p

Silicon: 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p2

-Semiconductors which are chemically pure, meaning free of impurities, are called
Intrinsic Semiconductors or Undoped Semiconductor or i-type Semiconductor.
The most common intrinsic semiconductors are Silicon (Si) and Germanium (Ge),
which belong to Group IV of the periodic table. The atomic numbers of Si and Ge are
14 and 32, which yields their electronic configuration as 1s 2 2s2 2p6, 3s2 3p2 and 1s2
2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s2 3d10 4p2, respectively. This indicates that both Si and Ge have
four electrons each in their outer-most i.e. valence shell (indicated by red colour).
These electrons are called valence electrons and are responsible for the conduction-
properties of the semiconductors.

Extrinsic semiconductor

-An extrinsic semiconductor is a semiconductor doped by a specific impurity which

is able to deeply modify its electrical properties, making it suitable for electronic
applications (diodes, transistors, etc.) or optoelectronic applications (light emitters
and detectors).

-Those semiconductors in which some impurity atoms are embedded are known as
extrinsic semiconductors.

Those semiconductors in which some impurity atoms are embedded are known as
extrinsic semiconductors.

Extrinsic semiconductors are basically of two types:

1. P-type semiconductors

2. N-type semiconductor
 Extrinsic semiconductor

-Doped semiconductors (either n-type or p-type) are known as extrinsic

semiconductors. The activation energy for electrons to be donated by or accepted
to impurity states is usually so low that at room temperature the concentration of
majority charge carriers is similar to the concentration of impurities. It should be
remembered that in an extrinsic semiconductor there is a contribution to the total
number of charge carriers from intrinsic electrons and holes, but at room
temperature this contribution is often very small in comparison with the number of
charge carriers introduced by the controlled impurity doping of the semiconductor.

-semiconductors with intentionally added impurities are called extrinsic

semiconductors. This process of adding impurities in minute quantities into the pure
semiconductor material under controlled conditions is known as doping. The process
is undertaken with an intention of increasing the conductivity of the material.
Hence, the impurities are chosen in such a way that their addition into the pure
semiconductor should increase the number of free charge carriers which can be
either holes or electrons. It is well known that the pure semiconductors like Silicon
(Si) or Germanium (Ge) are tetravalent (have four electrons in their valence shell) as
they belong to Group IV of the periodic table. Thus, if one needs to increase the
number of electrons in them, they are to be doped with the Group V elements of the
periodic table viz., Phosphorous (P), Arsenic (As), Antimony (Sb), Bismuth (Bi) or
Lithium (Li).

N-type semiconductor

- N-type semiconductors are a type of extrinsic semiconductor where the dopant

atoms are capable of providing extra conduction electrons to the host material (e.g.
phosphorus in silicon). This creates an excess of negative (n-type) electron charge
carriers.

- N-type semiconductor
When pentavalent impurity is added to an intrinsic or pure semiconductor (silicon or
germanium), then it is said to be an n-type semiconductor. Pentavalent impurities
such as phosphorus, arsenic, antimony etc are called donor impurity.

Let us consider, pentavalent impurity phosphorus is added to silicon as shown in

below figure. Phosphorus atom has 5 valence electrons and silicon has 4 valence
electrons. Phosphorus atom has one excess valence electron than silicon. The four
valence electrons of each phosphorus atom form 4 covalent bonds with the 4
neighboring silicon atoms. The fifth valence electron of the phosphorus atom cannot
able to form the covalent bond with the silicon atom because silicon atom does not
have the fifth valence electron to form the covalent bond.

Thus, fifth valence electron of phosphorus atom does not involve in the formation of
covalent bonds. Hence, it is free to move and not attached to the parent atom.

This shows that each phosphorus atom donates one free electron. Therefore, all the
pentavalent impurities are called donors. The number of free electrons are depends
on the amount of impurity (phosphorus) added to the silicon. A small addition of
impurity (phosphorus) generates millions of free electrons.

Charge on n-type semiconductor

So many people think that n-type semiconductor has large number of free electrons.
So, the total electric charge of n-type semiconductor is negative. But this
assumption is wrong. Even though n-type semiconductor has large number of free
electrons, but these free electrons is given by the pentavalent atoms that are
electrically neutral. Therefore, the total electric charge of n-type semiconductor is
also neutral.

Conduction in n-type semiconductor

Let us consider an n-type semiconductor as shown in below figure. When voltage is

applied to n-type semiconductor; the free electrons moves towards positive terminal
of applied voltage. Similarly holes moves towards negative terminal of applied
voltage.

In n-type semiconductor, the population of free electrons is more whereas the

population of holes is less. Hence in n-type semiconductor free electrons are called
majority carriers and holes are called minority carriers. Therefore, in a n-type
semiconductor conduction is mainly because of motion of free electrons.

- An N-type semiconductor is a better conductor than the intrinsic semiconductor

material. The majority charge carriers in N-type semiconductors are electrons and
minority charge carriers are holes. The N-type semiconductors are not negatively
charged, because the negative charge of donor impurity atoms is balanced by the
positive charge within the nucleus.

The major contribution to the electric current flow is negatively charged electrons
though there is some amount of contribution by the positively charged holes due to
electron-hole pair.

P-type semiconductor

- A P-type semiconductor (P for Positive) is obtained by carrying out a process of

doping, that is adding a certain type of atoms to the semiconductor in order to
increase the number of free charge carriers (in this case positive). When the doping
material is added, it takes away (accepts) weakly-bound outer electrons from the
semiconductor atoms. This type of doping agent is also known as an acceptor
material and the vacancy left behind by the electron is known as a hole. The
purpose of P-type doping is to create an abundance of holes. In the case of silicon, a
trivalent atom (typically from Group 13 of the periodic table, such as boron or
aluminium) is substituted into the crystal lattice. The result is that one electron is
missing from one of the four covalent bonds normal for the silicon lattice. Thus the
dopant atom can accept an electron from a neighboring atom's covalent bond to
complete the fourth bond. This is why such dopants are called acceptors. The
dopant atom accepts an electron, causing the loss of half of one bond from the
neighboring atom and resulting in the formation of a "hole". Each hole is associated
with a nearby negatively-charged dopant ion, and the semiconductor remains
electrically neutral as a whole. However, once each hole has wandered away into
the lattice, one proton in the atom at the hole's location will be "exposed" and no
longer cancelled by an electron. For this reason a hole behaves as a quantity of
positive charge. When a sufficiently large number of acceptor atoms are added, the
holes greatly outnumber the thermally-excited electrons. Thus, the holes are the
majority carriers, while electrons are the minority carriers in P-type materials. Blue
diamonds (Type IIb), which contain boron (B) impurities, are an example of a
naturally occurring P-type semiconductor.

- The extrinsic p-Type Semiconductor is formed when a trivalent impurity is added to

a pure semiconductor in a small amount, and as a result, a large number of holes
are created in it. A large number of holes are provided in the semiconductor
material by the addition of trivalent impurities like Gallium and Indium. Such type of
impurities which produces p-type semiconductor are known as an Acceptor
Impurities because each atom of them create one hole which can accept one
electron.

A trivalent impurity like gallium, having three valence electrons is added to

germanium crystal in a small amount. Each atom of the impurity fits in the
germanium crystal in such a way that its three valence electrons form covalent
bonds with the three surrounding germanium atoms as shown in the figure below.
 In the fourth covalent bonds, only the germanium atom contributes one valence
electron, while gallium atom has no valence bonds. Hence, the fourth covalent bond
is incomplete, having one electron short. This missing electron is known as a Hole.
Thus, each gallium atom provides one hole in the germanium crystal.

As an extremely small amount of Gallium impurity has a large number of atoms,

therefore, it provides millions of holes in the semiconductor.

PN Junction Theory

-Semiconductor diode theory is at the very centre of much of today's electronics

industry. In fact semiconductor technology is present in almost every area of
modern day technology and as such semiconductor theory is a very important
element of electronics.

One of the fundamental structures within semiconductor technology is the PN

junction. It is the fundamental building block of semiconductor diodes and
transistors and a number of other electronic components.

The semiconductor diode has the valuable property that electrons only flow in one
direction across it and as a result it acts as a rectifier. As it has two electrodes it
receives its name - diode. In view of this, it is one of the most fundamental
structures in semiconductor technology. Vast numbers of diodes are manufactured
each year, and of course the semiconductor diode is the basis of many other
devices apart from diodes. The bipolar junction transistor, junction FET and many
more all rely on the PN junction for their operation. This makes the semiconductor
PN junction diode one of the key enablers in today's electronics technology.

PN Junction

In its basic form a semiconductor diode is formed from a piece of silicon by making
one end P type and the other end N type. This means that both ends have different
characteristics. One end has an excess of electrons whilst the other has an excess
of holes. Where the two areas meet the electrons fill the holes and there are no free
holes or electrons. This means that there are no available charge carries in this
region. In view of the fact that this area is depleted of charge carriers it is known as
the depletion region.

The semiconductor diode PN junction with no bias applied

Even though the depletion region is very thin, often only few thousandths of a
millimetre, current cannot flow in the normal way. Different effects are noticed
dependent upon the way in which the voltage is applied to the junction. If the
voltage is applied such that the P type area becomes positive and the N type
becomes negative, holes are attracted towards the negative voltage and are
assisted to jump across the depletion layer. Similarly electrons move towards the
positive voltage and jump the depletion layer. Even though the holes and electrons
are moving in opposite directions, they carry opposite charges and as a result they
represent a current flow in the same direction.

The semiconductor diode PN junction with forward bias

If the voltage is applied to the semiconductor diode in the opposite sense no current
flows. The reason for this is that the holes are attracted towards the negative
potential that is applied to the P type region. Similarly the electrons are attracted
towards the positive potential which is applied to the N type region. In other words
the holes and electrons are attracted away from the junction itself and the depletion
region increases in width. Accordingly no current flows.

The semiconductor diode PN junction with reverse bias

PN junction characteristics

The PN junction is not an ideal rectifier diode having infinite resistance in the
reverse direction and no resistance in the forward direction.

The characteristic of a diode PN junction

In the forward direction (forward biased) it can be seen that very little current flows
until a certain voltage has been reached. This represents the work that is required
to enable the charge carriers to cross the depletion layer. This voltage varies from
one type of semiconductor to another. For germanium it is around 0.2 or 0.3 volts
and for silicon it is about 0.6 volts. In fact it is possible to measure a voltage of
about 0.6 volts across most small current diodes when they are forward biased.
Power rectifier diodes normally have a larger voltage across them but this is partly
due to the fact that there is some resistance in the silicon, and partly due to the fact
that higher currents are flowing and they are operating further up the curve.

From the diagram it can be seen that a small amount of current flows in the reverse
direction (reverse biased). It has been exaggerated to show it on the diagram, and
in normal circumstances it is very much smaller than the forward current. Typically
it may be a pico amps or microamps at the most. However it is worse at higher
temperatures and it is also found that germanium is not as good as silicon.

This reverse current results from what are called minority carriers. These are a very
small number of electrons found in a P type region or holes in an N type region.
Early semiconductors has relatively high levels of minority carriers, but now that the
manufacture of semiconductor materials is very much better the number of minority
carriers is much reduced as are the levels of reverse currents.

Transistors

-A transistor is a device that regulates current or voltage flow and acts as a switch
or gate for electronic signals. Transistors consist of three layers of a semiconductor
material, each capable of carrying a current.

The transistor was invented by three scientists at the Bell Laboratories in 1947, and
it rapidly replaced the vacuum tube as an electronic signal regulator. A transistor
regulates current or voltage flow and acts as a switch or gate for electronic signals.
A transistor consists of three layers of a semiconductor material, each capable of
carrying a current. A semiconductor is a material such as germanium
and silicon that conducts electricity in a "semi-enthusiastic" way. It's somewhere
between a real conductor such as copper and an insulator (like the plastic wrapped
around wires).

The semiconductor material is given special properties by a chemical process

called doping. The doping results in a material that either adds extra electrons to
the material (which is then called N-type for the extra negative charge carriers) or
creates "holes" in the material's crystal structure (which is then called P-
type because it results in more positive charge carriers). The transistor's three-layer
structure contains an N-type semiconductor layer sandwiched between P-type
layers (a PNP configuration) or a P-type layer between N-type layers (an NPN
configuration).

A small change in the current or voltage at the inner semiconductor layer (which
acts as the control electrode) produces a large, rapid change in the current passing
through the entire component. The component can thus act as a switch, opening
and closing an electronic gate many times per second. Today's computers use
circuitry made with complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology.
CMOS uses two complementary transistors per gate (one with N-type material; the
other with P-type material). When one transistor is maintaining a logic state, it
requires almost no power.

Transistors are the basic elements in integrated circuits (IC), which consist of very
large numbers of transistors interconnected with circuitry and baked into a single
silicon microchip

PNP Transistor

-PNP transistor is another type of Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT). The structure of
the PNP transistor is completely different from the NPN transistor. The two PN-
junction diodes in the PNP transistor structure are reversed with respect to the NPN
transistor, such as the two P-type doped semiconductor materials are separated by
a thin layer of N-type doped semiconductor material. In PNP transistor the majority
current carriers are holes and electrons are the minority current carriers. All the
supply voltage polarities applied to the PNP transistor are reversed. In PNP
transistor the current sinks in to the base terminal. The small base current in the
PNP transistor has the ability to control the large emitter-collector current because it
is a current-controlled device.

-The arrow for BJT transistors is always located on the emitter terminal and also it
indicates the direction of conventional current flow. In PNP transistor this arrow
indicates as pointing in and the current direction in PNP is completely opposite to
the NPN transistor. The structure of PNP transistor is completely opposite to the
NPN transistor. But the characteristics and operation of the PNP transistor is almost
same as NPN transistor with small differences. The symbol and structure for PNP
transistor is shown below.

The above figure shows the structure and symbol of PNP Transistor. This transistor
mainly consists of 3 terminals and they are Emitter (E), Collector (C) and Base (B).
Here if you observe, the base current flows out of the base unlike NPN transistor.
The emitter voltage is much positive with respect to base and collector.

PNP Transistor Working

The circuit connection of PNP transistor with supply voltages is given below. Here
the base terminal has negative bias with respect to emitter and the emitter terminal
has positive bias voltage with respect to both base and collector because of PNP
transistor.

The polarities and current directions are reversed here compared to NPN transistor.
If the transistor is connected to all the voltage sources as shown above then the
base current flows through the transistor but here the base voltage needs to be
more negative with respect to the emitter to operate transistor. Here the base-
emitter junction acts as a diode. The small amount of current in the base controls
the flowing of large current through emitter to collector region. The base voltage is
generally 0.7V for Si and 0.3V for Germanium devices.

Here the base terminal acts as input and the emitter- collector region acts as
output. The supply voltage VCC is connected to the emitter terminal and a load
resistor (RL) is connected to the collector terminal. This load resistor (R L) is used to
limits the maximum current flow through the device. One more resistor (R B) is
connected to the base terminal which is used to limit the maximum current flow
through the base terminal and also a negative voltage is applied to the base
terminal. Here the collector current is always equal to the subtraction of base
current from emitter current. Like NPN transistor, the PNP transistor also has the
current gain value . Now let us see the relation between the currents and current
gain .

The collector current (IC) is given by,

IC = IE IB

The DC current gain () for the PNP transistor is same as the NPN transistor.

DC current gain = = Output current/Input current

Here output current is collector current and input current is base current.
 = IC/IB

From this equation we get,

IB = IC/

IC = IB

And also we define the current gain as,

Current gain = Collector current/ Emitter current (In common base transistor)

= IC/IE

The relation between and is given by,

= / (1- ) and = / (+1)

The collector current in PNP transistor is given by,

IC = IE + ICBO where ICBO is the saturation current.

Since IE = -(IC + IB)

IC = (-(IC + IB)) + ICBO

IC IC = IB + ICBO

IC (1- ) = IB + ICBO

IC = (/ (1- )) IB + ICBO/ (1- )

Since = / (1- )

Now we get the equation for collector current

IC = IB + (1+ ) ICBO

The output characteristics of PNP transistor are same as NPN transistor

characteristics. The small difference is that the PNP transistor characteristic curve
rotates 1800 to calculate the reverse polarity voltages and current values. The
dynamic load line also exists on the characteristic curve to calculate the Q-point
value. The PNP transistors are also used in switching and amplifying circuits like
NPN transistors.
NPN Transistor

-NPN transistor is one of the Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT) types. The NPN
transistor consists of two n-type semiconductor materials and they are separated by
a thin layer of p-type semiconductor. Here the majority charge carriers are the
electrons. The flowing of these electrons from emitter to collector forms the current
flow in the transistor. Generally the NPN transistor is the most used type of bipolar
transistors because the mobility of electrons is higher than the mobility of holes.
The NPN transistor has three terminals emitter, base and collector. The NPN
transistor is mostly used for amplifying and switching the signals.

NPN Transistor Circuit

The above figure shows the NPN transistor circuit with supply voltages and resistive
loads. Here the collector terminal always connected to the positive voltage, the
emitter terminal connected to the negative supply and the base terminal controls
the ON/OFF states of transistor depending on the voltage applied to it.

NPN Transistor Working

The working of NPN transistor is quite complex. In the above circuit connections we
observed that the supply voltage VB is applied to the base terminal through the
load RB. The collector terminal connected to the voltage VCC through the load RL.
Here both the loads RB and RL can limit the current flow through the corresponding
terminals. Here the base terminal and collector terminals always contain positive
voltages with respect to emitter terminal.

If the base voltage is equal to the emitter voltage then the transistor is in OFF state.
If the base voltage increases over emitter voltage then the transistor becomes more
switched until it is in fully ON state. If the sufficient positive voltage is applied to the
base terminal i.e. fully-ON state, then electrons flow generated and the current (IC)
flows from emitter to the collector. Here the base terminal acts as input and the
collector-emitter region acts as output.

To allow current flow between emitter and collector properly, it is necessary that the
collector voltage must be positive and also greater than the emitter voltage of
transistor. Some amount of voltage drop presented between base and emitter, such
as 0.7V. So the base voltage must be greater than the voltage drop 0.7V otherwise
the transistor will not operate. The equation for base current of a bipolar NPN
transistor is given by,

IB = (VB-VBE)/RB

Where,

IB = Base current
VB = Base bias voltage
VBE = Input Base-emitter voltage = 0.7V
RB = Base resistance

Field Effect Transistor

-The Field Effect Transistor, or simply FET however, uses the voltage that is
applied to their input terminal, called the Gate to control the current flowing through
them resulting in the output current being proportional to the input voltage. As their
operation relies on an electric field (hence the name field effect) generated by the
input Gate voltage, this then makes the Field Effect Transistor a VOLTAGE
operated device.
 Typical Field Effect Transistor
The Field Effect Transistor is a three terminal unipolar semiconductor device that
has very similar characteristics to those of their Bipolar Transistor counterparts ie,
high efficiency, instant operation, robust and cheap and can be used in most
electronic circuit applications to replace their equivalent bipolar junction transistors
(BJT) cousins.
Field effect transistors can be made much smaller than an equivalent BJT transistor
and along with their low power consumption and power dissipation makes them
ideal for use in integrated circuits such as the CMOS range of digital logic chips.
We remember from the previous tutorials that there are two basic types of bipolar
transistor construction, NPN and PNP, which basically describes the physical
arrangement of the P-type and N-type semiconductor materials from which they are
made. This is also true of FETs as there are also two basic classifications of Field
Effect Transistor, called the N-channel FET and the P-channel FET.
The field effect transistor is a three terminal device that is constructed with no PN-
junctions within the main current carrying path between the Drain and
the Source terminals, which correspond in function to the Collector and the Emitter
respectively of the bipolar transistor. The current path between these two terminals
is called the channel which may be made of either a P-type or an N-type
semiconductor material.
--The Field Effect Transistor has one major advantage over its standard bipolar
transistor cousins, in that their input impedance, ( Rin ) is very high, (thousands of
Ohms), while the BJT is comparatively low. This very high input impedance makes
them very sensitive to input voltage signals, but the price of this high sensitivity
also means that they can be easily damaged by static electricity.
There are two main types of field effect transistor, the Junction Field Effect Transistor
or JFET and the Insulated-gate Field Effect Transistor or IGFET), which is more
commonly known as the standard Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor
or MOSFET for short.

Thyristors

-It is a multi-layer semiconductor device, hence the silicon part of its name. It
requires a gate signal to turn it ON, the controlled part of the name and once
ON it behaves like a rectifying diode, the rectifier part of the name. In fact the
circuit symbol for the thyristor suggests that this device acts like a controlled
rectifying diode.
 Thyristor Symbol

However, unlike the diode which is a two layer ( P-N ) semiconductor device, or the
transistor which is a three layer ( P-N-P, or N-P-N ) device, the Thyristor is a four
layer ( P-N-P-N ) semiconductor device that contains three PN junctions in series,
and is represented by the symbol as shown.

Like the diode, the Thyristor is a unidirectional device, that is it will only conduct
current in one direction only, but unlike a diode, the thyristor can be made to
operate as either an open-circuit switch or as a rectifying diode depending upon
how the thyristors gate is triggered. In other words, thyristors can operate only in
the switching mode and cannot be used for amplification.

The silicon controlled rectifier SCR, is one of several power semiconductor devices
along with Triacs (Triode ACs), Diacs (Diode ACs) and UJTs (Unijunction Transistor)
that are all capable of acting like very fast solid state AC switches for controlling
large AC voltages and currents. So for the Electronics student this makes these very
handy solid state devices for controlling AC motors, lamps and for phase control.

The thyristor is a three-terminal device labelled: Anode, Cathode and Gate and
consisting of three PN junctions which can be switched ON and OFF at an
extremely fast rate, or it can be switched ON for variable lengths of time during
half cycles to deliver a selected amount of power to a load. The operation of the
thyristor can be best explained by assuming it to be made up of two transistors
connected back-to-back as a pair of complementary regenerative switches as
shown.

A Thyristors Two Transistor Analogy

Reverse Blocking mode of thyristor

-nitially for the reverse blocking mode of the thyristor, the cathode is made
positive with respect to anode by supplying voltage E and the gate to cathode
supply voltage Es is detached initially by keeping switch S open. For understanding
this mode we should look into the fourth quadrant where the thyristor is reverse
biased.

Here Junctions J1 and J3 are reverse biased whereas the junction J2 is forward biased.
The behavior of the thyristor here is similar to that of two diodes are connected in
series with reverse voltage applied across them. As a result only a small leakage
current of the order of a few Amps flows.

This is the reverse blocking mode or the off-state, of the thyristor. If the reverse
voltage is now increased, then at a particular voltage, known as the critical
breakdown voltage VBR, an avalanche occurs at J1 and J3 and the reverse current
increases rapidly. A large current associated with V BR gives rise to more losses in the
SCR, which results in heating. This may lead to thyristor damage as the junction
temperature may exceed its permissible temperature rise. It should, therefore, be
ensured that maximum working reverse voltage across a thyristor does not exceed
VBR. When reverse voltage applied across a thyristor is less than VBR, the device
offers very high impedance in the reverse direction. The SCR in the reverse blocking

mode may therefore be treated as open circuit.

-SCR are available with reverse blocking capability. Reverse blocking capability adds
to the forward voltage drop because of the need to have a long, low doped P1
region. (If one cannot determine which region is P1, a labeled diagram of layers and
junctions can help).
Usually, the reverse blocking voltage rating and forward blocking voltage rating are
the same. The typical application for reverse blocking SCR is in current source
inverters.

Forward blocking mode of Thyristor

-
Now considering the anode is positive with respect to the cathode, with gate kept in
open condition. The thyristor is now said to be forward biased as shown the figure
below.

As we can see the junctions J1 and J3arenow forward biased but junction J2goes into
reverse biased condition. In this particular mode, a small current, called forward
leakage current is allowed to flow initially as shown in the diagram for
characteristics of thyristor. Now, if we keep on increasing the forward biased anode
to cathode voltage.

In this particular mode, the thyristor conducts currents from anode to cathode with
a very small voltage drop across it. A thyristor is brought from forward blocking
mode to forward conduction mode by turning it on by exceeding the forward break
over voltage or by applying a gate pulse between gate and cathode. In this mode,
thyristor is in on-state and behaves like a closed switch. Voltage drop across
thyristor in the on state is of the order of 1 to 2 V depending beyond a certain point,
then the reverse biased junction J2 will have an avalanche breakdown at a voltage
called forward break over voltage VB0 of the thyristor. But, if we keep the forward
voltage less than VBO, we can see from the characteristics of thyristor, that the
device offers a high impedance. Thus even here the thyristor operates as an open
switch during the forward blocking mode.

-In this mode of operation the anode is given a positive potential while the cathode
is given a negative voltage keeping the gate at zero potential i.e. disconnected. In
this case junction J1 and J3 are forward biased while J2 is reversed biased due to
which only a small leakage current flows from the anode to the cathode until the
applied voltage reaches its breakover value at which J2 undergoes avalanche
breakdown and at this breakover voltage it starts conducting but below breakover
voltage it offers very high resistance to the flow of current and is said to be in off
state.

Forward Conduction mode of Thyristor

-When the anode to cathode forward voltage is increased, with gate circuit open,
the reverse junction J2 will have an avalanche breakdown at forward break over
voltage VBO leading to thyristor turn on. Once the thyristor is turned on we can see
from the diagram for characteristics of thyristor, that the point M at once shifts
toward N and then anywhere between N and K. Here NK represents the forward
conduction mode of the thyristor. In this mode of operation, the thyristor conducts
maximum current with minimum voltage drop, this is known as the forward
conduction forward conduction or the turn on mode of the thyristor.

-SCR can be brought from blocking mode to conduction mode in two ways either
by increasing the voltage across anode to cathode beyond breakover voltage or by
applying of positive pulse at gate. Once it starts conducting no more gate voltage is
required to maintain it in on state. There is one way to turn it off i.e. Reduce the
current flowing through it below a minimum value called holding current.