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Power Electronics

Semiconductor Devices → Electronic Circuits → Watt Rating

Mobile Phone Charger→ Few Rating
Industrial Drives → MW Rating

Power Semiconductor Devices

Power Diodes , SCR , Power BJT , Power MOSFET , IGBTS

Electronics → +- 15 V , +-5V , 3.3 V , uA , mA

To handle Higher currents → Increase area

To handle Higher voltages → Increase length

Power Electronics → a few W to 100’s of MW

Mobile Charger Example :

230V , 50 Hz
→ Rectifier → 0.9*Vrms → DC to DC converter → Battery
110V , 60 Hz

Voltage and Current Regulation

Variable Speed Drive :

Controlling the speed of induction motor , AC to DC then DC to Desired Frequency AC

General Block Diagram Of Power Electronic System

Source Power Converter v,i

Load
Circuit
Power electronic ckt creates
automatically some distortion in
sinosoudal nature , whether we
want or not. Heat sink ,
Isolation & We should know
In India , consumption is more the how much heat is
suplpy , so we wont get 230 volt
Amplification
going to be
but less.
Power convertors produce generated , the
disturbs the power quality of grid. Act Sensor or physics of devices is
Control requirerd.
But at same time Pow. Conv. Can CKT Transducer
be desingned to ovrecome this
issue E.X ups , SMPS ( power
conditioning )
Reference Value
Source → Can be DC or AC 50 Hz , 60 Hz etc
Power converter ckt → Its output will be in form of either current and voltage.
Load → Load will have some requirement , I o v or speed , load etc
Senor Or transducer →
Control Ckt → Brain of PE system , it will decide weather to reduce currents or voltages or increase
the frequency etc .
Isolation → In power converter there are thick conductors going to the ground and having 100 currents
of 100’s of amperes , whereas electonic portion has mAmps of currents flowing , if something went
wrong into the power portion I don’t want it to circulate in electronic portion.

Amplification → Power Converters like power diode , transistor needs say 1 amps of currents , the
electronic circuits won’t able to produce even that much amount of current.

Power Converter Circuits

AC To DC → Rectifier
DC to DC → Chopper
Say we want to supply variable dc voltages , we will apply the voltages for duration ( pulse ) and not
apply for another duration. Our Motor won’t realise this change , because we will operate in high
frequency.

AC to AC → Transformer is bulky , AC chopper cycloconverter

DC to AC → Inverters

3 Different devices :
uncontrolled : Diode
Semi Controlled : SCR , Thyristors ( On → controllable OFF → Uncontrollable )
Fully Controlled : Both ON and OFF are controlled ( example transistor , ase is derived than on elae
off)

Major focus on many of the device research

Increase the rating
Reduce the forward voltage drop , Voltage* Current is power loss
Frequency of operation ( to increase , Right now it is Mh ) , turn on and off has to be quick → if charge
carries can be emmoitted quickly and charege carriers can be recombine quickly , recombination
causes off state and emmison cause on satate of device .

Bringing down the cost of device and size reduction .

 Power Devices

Thyristor can be fully controlled and semi controlled

Semiconductor => SCR ( On can be controlled but off can’t )
Fully Controlled => GTO , IGBT ( Hybrid of transistor and Mosfet → Medium power rating 100’s of
KW rated ) , MCT ( ABB Property so less information present ), Power Mosfet , Power BJT ,

Gate Turn-Off thyristor , Integrated Gate Commutated Thyristor , MOS controlled Thyristor.

Power Diode :

Length will be large compared to normal diode.

6 to 7 KV
Voltage drop acros diode can be 2 to 3 V
4 to 5 KA

tr reverse recovery time , depends

Say diode is
on recombination rate.
forward bias , V
+ve now say it
I Efforts are being made to reduce
V +ve
made reverse tr , so we can operate it for High
bias ( V -ve) ,
V -ve frequency.
Ideally current
should drope tr
down to 0 , but it
first falls to
T
negative and
then after tr , it
becomes 0.
3 Types of Diodes :
1.) Converter or Power Frequency Diodes ( High Power Low Frequency) – Rectifier.
2.) Fast recovery diode
( Free wheeling , Feedback diode )

+ I<0 ( switch ON )
Ldi/dt → Very large
I=0 ( switch OFF)
Free
wheeling
Diode Motor To reduce this very large voltage drop , we can
put a free wheeling diode , which will provide
a short circuit path to desipate motor current.
-
Fast recovery is needed
because the ON OFF
switching is very high.

Feedback Diodes in
DC to AC converter

3.) Schottky Diode

( Instead of doping , metal semiconductor Junction )
resistance of material will be very small , forward voltage very low as 0.1 or 0.2 Volts , but lekage
currents can be higher , generally designed for lower voltage , because og high lekage currents it is
designed for low voltage operations. ( 300 V )

Used in Power Supply applications

 Center tapped Rectifier Bridge Rectifier
Two Diode Drop , But it can
handle large voltages if SCR is
Less voltage Drop for schottky diode.
Only corresponding to one diode , But designed for used. Because of less lekage
less voltages , so its used in power supply ckts. current.

Why designed for less voltages : because of large lekage

current.

Protection of Diode
From Over Voltage , Over Currents , High dv/dt , High Ldi/dt.

Semiconductor Fusses ∫ i 2 R dt
→ Over current Protection
di/dt Protection

dv/dt Protection
RC snubber

For handling more voltage or increase the rating

 For increasing the voltage rating

Let the both the device have 6 KV rating , we want to apply

10KV , for ideal case 5 kV will be devided,
But say because of some inherent differece say in more legake
current => one diode have more voltage drope say 6 KV , so
that diode will break down.

We have to make sure that each diode will get 5 KV only.

RD1 RD2
Voltage Division Circuit will
help

D1 D2

Calculating the value for RD1 and RD2 :

V D1 V D2
I total = I lD 1+ = I lD 2+
RD 1 RD 2

SCR ( Silicon Controlled Rectifier )

4 Layer Device
Once the gate is triggered , large
Highly Doped
current will pass through the collector
of above transistor and following to
which base will be forward bias of
below.

This will continue to increase , so ,

very tough to stop
Highly Doped
SCR is used only in AC circuits , in dc circuits like choppers and inverters we don’t use SCR.

SCR characteristics
Shoot through : Short circuit right across the supply.

Commutation( current transfer ) Circuits

Types of SCR’s
Converter grade thyristor ( rectifier ) → slower , higher rating
Inverter grade thyristor ( dc to ac ) → faster more switching is required, lower rating
LASCR → Light activated SCR

Vcc
Triggering of an SCR

Pulse AND
Power
Ground

HF Pulses
Electronic
ground

Ig:Ianode = 1:1000
So, for anode current of 1 Kamps , trigger current of 1 amp will needed.
This is huge current have to be isolated from the electronics circuit of trigring pulse.
For that ground will be made different.
And a transformer will be used.

Transformer won’t work ( saturates ) with DC current/voltages , so high frequency pulses will be given.

Free Wheeling diode at the transformer at pulse side is used to avoid high voltages developed in
transformer ( inductor )

As we need 1 milli amps of current , a amplifier is required.

Device Specification :
Forward Blocking Voltage , reapeted/Once Reverse Breakdown Voltage , Irms , Ipeak , Turn On time ,
Turn-Off Time ( recombination time ) , how much di/dt and dv/dt device can withstand.

Like diode Voltage and current sharing to incease the rating.

RD1 RD2
Voltage Division Circuit will
help

Application of increasing rating Use of it is , High DC voltage transmission.

Commutation Circuit
M

M
C A
Vdc

L D1

T
1/T = freq of
when M is fired : chopper
Vdc → M → DC Motor
C → M → D1 → L → C

Πsqrt(LC)
T/2
when A is fired

IM is having a huge reverse

component. - IM
+
M goes off instantaneously( HARD
COMMUTATION )

If IM increases slowly , soft commutation.

Freewheeling of motor inductanse will happen.

Three stages of commutation :

1.) M is fired to supply the motor drive,

capacitance reversing its charge → π √( LC) , Minimum ON Time

2.) M has to be commutated → A is fired instantaneously , M is turned off.

3.) Auxulary SCR allows capacitance to be charged back to Vdc

Freewheeling diode takes over

Now , How long the SCR is going to be turned off.

Until the voltge becomes zero .

Iarmature=V δV =I δ t

+VDC → 0 –> -VDC

CV DC =Iarmature δ t , δ t > turn off time of the SCR

AC-AC inverter
SCR are not used commonly
DC-DC choppers

AC-DC → Voltage reverses → natural commutation takes place

Turn ON scr : 1) Device has to be forward bias , that is Vanode > Vcathode
2) Gate pulse should be given , Vgate > Vcathode
3.) Anode current > Latching Current
 Turn-Off SCR : 1) Anode current < Holding current ( latching current = 10 mAmps then holding
current = 9 mAmps that very simmilar )

2) After the current decreases the device has to be revese bias atlest for the time turn off time( data
sheet )

Protection Of SCR :

Over Current → semiconductor fuses I2t rating fuse < I2t rating of divce

di/dt protection → series inductor

dv/dt protection → if dv/dt is high then device will turn ON , we don’t want any spuroius turn on.

RC snubber

with diode , its called pollorised 20 ohm R

dv/dt = 100/20 = 5A +
5A
C = 5/(200*10^6) = 2.5*10^-8 -
Discarging current limit duration of turn C
On Time .

Triac

5Layer Device
Back to Back connected SCR pair.
MT1

n+
P

n
G P n+

M T2
Electronic Fan regulator :

alpha

Pi + alpha

GTO

Power Diode

NPN → Because electron mobility is more the proton.

Common Emitter Configuration

Ic

Active Region
Saturation
region

Cutt off region

VCE

VCE*IC =
Current driven device VCC desipation iside the
transistor
Vce
Acive
region

Vce(sat) Saturation
0.7V region

Transfer Ic
Characteristics
Active region : heat desipation is high , so heat sink size will be large . Not used , generally active
region is used for amplification .

Saturation region : Ic/IB = β = 10 to 12

So , if Ic is 100 Amps then IB has to be 10 A ,

=> Base circuit power capacity is quite high , so the electronic circuits involved has to be complex.

Design is not simple → thats why not much research is been on power transistor
Rating : 100’s KW , but we have seen that 1 SCR have ratings of 30 MW

Turn-Off and Turn ON losses

Applied
voltage

Leakages
currents
ON OFF

Base Drive requirement is high for BJT :

To reduce it one can use darlington pair

Ic = Ic1 + Ic2

Ic1/IB1 = β1 = current amalification factor of Q1

Ic2/IB2 = β2 = current amalification factor of Q2

IB2 = IE1 = Ic1 + IB1

= IB1 + IB1 β1 = IB1( 1 + β1 )

Ic2 = β2 IB1(1+ β1 )
Ic = Ic1 + Ic2 = β1 IB1 + β2 IB1(1+ β1 )
Important
 Ic
=β1 +β 2+β1 β2
IB

%beta _1 = 10 and %beta _2 = 10 , Ic/Ib = 120

Advantage : So, current amplification factor increases tremendiously , thus

the base drive current requiremet reduces .

Disadvantage : Both the transistors are driven into hard saturation. To get
them out of saturation – to turn off – it will take more time

High frequency operation will be difficult.

Power MOSFETS : ( Voltage driven Device ) ( < 10KW rating )

D n n S
p

VG > VGS ( Threshold )

Advantage : (1) Small (+)ve voltage acrros gate and source > V GS ( TH).

(2) Turn – ON time of thyristor is 10’s or 100’s of us . Inverter grade 50-60

us turn on time , converter grade 200-300 us turn on time ,

Where as BJT take few us , and mosfet can turn on in few nano-sec .

So , very high frequency of operation.

Disadvantage:
On state resistance = Channel rsistance + drift resistance

So, on state loss higher

Works on capacitive principal , so if so grownding path is given , charges

will flow , sensitive to static charges .
a) Protection cannot be done with fuses , because of high frequency.

b)
→ For di/dt protection

c) Metal oxide varistor ( non-linear resistor )

Front end :
IGBT ( 5 KV ) Transistor
D
p+
Hybrid of Mosfet and BJT

Turning on
n+ n+
happen because of mosfet , so mos
mos
voltage driven device.
S Back End :
G
mosfet
But higher turn off time than mosfet

ON state resistance < mosfet

> BJT

Inverter
Static VAR compensator ,
compensating both laging
MHz and leading pf
mosfet
Iduction heating systems.

KHz BJT IGBT Used in wind energy and solar

energy converters .
Bost converters

Hz GTO Thysistor HDVC

transmisiongs and
DC drives

KW 100’s 100’s
KW MW
Firing scheme for BJT/MOSFET/IGBT

We can’t give pulses like this , because otherwise devise will conduct and
disconnect and then connect and disconnect ….. so on.

Isolation : using opto isolator or opto couple

40% 60%

VDC

Sawtooth
waveform - 60%

DC control
voltage
+
Electronic
ground

Vcc Power ground