An overvoltage, self-protected thyristor with high breakover power endurance

Author

Shimizu, Yoshiteru ; Iyotani, Ryuji ; Yatsuo, Tsutomu ; Yokota, Yoshihiro

Author_Institution

Hitachi Ltd., Ibaraki, Japan

Volume

38

Issue

4

fYear

1991

fDate

4/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

913

Lastpage

916

Abstract

A high-resistance region was built in between the pilot thyristor and auxiliary thyristor. The built-in resistance had the ability to transfer the breakover power to the resistance region. Power dissipation in the device could be controlled by varying the built-in resistance. Using the built-in resistance, the breakover power endurance of a thyristor with a 5.5-kV breakover voltage could be increased by more than twice that of a device with no built-in resistance. The built-in resistance also functioned as a ballast resistor to make current spreading uniform. The voltage of the resistance region did not change for the two junction temperatures studied, 23°C and 100°C

Keywords

electric resistance; overvoltage protection; thyristors; 5.5 kV; auxiliary thyristor; ballast resistor; built-in resistance; current spreading uniform; high breakover power endurance; high-resistance region; overvoltage; pilot thyristor; power dissipation control; self-protected thyristor; Circuit testing; Electronic ballasts; Power dissipation; Power electronics; Power system protection; Resistors; Silicon; Switches; Thyristors; Voltage control;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.75223

Filename

75223