Experiment 1: The silicone Controlled Rectifier

Objective: To study the performance characteristic of Silicone Controlled Rectifier.

MOTIVATION:
The Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) acts like a normally off switch. To turn it on we have
to apply a trigger to the gate. Once on, the SCR acts like a closed switch. The trigger may be
removed but the SCR remains closed. The only way to open the SCR is to reduce the supply
voltage to a low value near to zero. In this experiment you are going to study the behaviour of
the SCR.
Equipment: Adjustable power supply (0-15V), Red Led, Transistor 2N3904, 2N3906, SCCR:
BTA 06, Resistors: 100, 330, 470, 1K(x2), 10K, 1K potentiometer,
Zener Diode, Multimeter, Oscilloscope.
Procedure:
a. Part I
Transistor latch
[Use circuit diagram of figure 1]
1. Connect the circuit shown in figure 1, with the switch open and a Vcc of +15V. The
LED should be off. If not reduce the supply voltage to zero, then back to +15 V.
2. With the LED off, measure and record the voltage at point A and the LED current ( by
measuring voltage drop across 1K resistor)
3. Close the switch. The LED should come on
4. Open the switch. The LED should stay on.
5. With LED on , measure and record the voltage at point A. Also measure and record
the LED current (either by measuring voltage drop across 1K resistor or by direct
measurement using an ammeter)
6. With LED on, reduce the supply voltage until the LED goes off. Then increase the
supply voltage and notice that the LED remains off.
7. Close the switch momentarily then open . The LED should be on.

b.

Part II
SCR Circuit
[Use circuit diagram of figure 2]
11

Connect the circuit shown in figure (2) with R1 reduced to zero.

12

Adjust Vcc to +15 V. The LED should now off.( if the LED is on, reduce Vcc to zero,
then increase it back to +15V. The LED should now be off ). Measure and record V2
and LED current in table 2(a).

13

Slowly increase V1 ( using variable resistor R1) until LED just comes on. Measure
and record V2 , LED current in table 2(b).

14

Assume a gate trigger current of 7 mA and a gate trigger voltage of 0.75V. If he LED
is off, calculate the value of V1 needed to turn on the LED? Record your answer in
table 2(c).

15

Reduce R1 to zero so V1 = 0. Now slowly increase V1 (using variable resistor R1)

until LED just comes on. Measure and record V1 , LED current in table 2(c).

16

Assume a holding current of 6 mA . Calculate and record the value of Vcc where
SCR turns off in table 2(d)

17

Make LED on by increasing the V1 with the help of R1. Now reduce V1 to zero.
Slowly decrease Vcc until the LED just goes out. Measure and record Vcc in table
2(d).

b. Part III
Application of crowbar circuit
[ Use circuit diagram of figure 3]
18

Connect the crowbar circuit of fig. 3..

19

Connect a dc voltmeter across the 1K . It should read approximately 5V.

20

Slowly increase the supply voltage while watching the voltmeter reading. The
crowbar should activate somewhere above 6.2 V. when it does, the load voltage will
drop to a low value.

21

Reduce the supply voltage to zero. Then repeat step 20. What did you learn about the
crowbar?

Pre experimental quiz:

1. What is a silicone controlled rectifier?
A silicone controlled rectifier or SCR is a semiconductor or IC that act as a simple switch
with the use of a small current (gate current) to the gate of the SCR to allow larger current
flow through the SCR from anode to cathode. SCR also act as latching devices which
means that it is able to sustained itself once turn on thus it is also known that SCR is a
partially controllable device since it is controllable turn on but uncontrollable turn off.
They are mainly used for power control application due to the fact that the extra doping
layer allows a better power handling capability as compared to its counterpart.
2. Draw the voltage-current characteristics of an SCR.
I

Forward Conduction
Holding Current
Latching Current

Reverse Breakdown
(Avalanche Breakdown)

V
Forward Leakage
Reverse Leakage

Forward Breakdown

3. State the differences between an SCR and a diode.

From the outlook comparison between an SCR and a diode, both of these components
contains the anode and cathode leg however SCR had an additional leg which is the gate that
is responsible to turn on the SCR at any point of time. Proper control of the firing angle
through the gate will allow us to obtain the desirable duty cycle.

Diode
Diodes are made up of two terminals which is the anode and the cathode terminals. It only
allows current flow in one direction thus it is unidirectional and more preferably used in
rectifier circuits. The diode will only act as a conductor when there is a small voltage applied
across the two terminals. When the diode conducts, it is usually accompanied by a drop of
voltage about 0.7V when current flows through the terminals. This phenomenon is known as
the forward voltage drop. Diode is often use in small signal circuits.
SCR
An SCR consist of three p-n junctions and often modeled as a pair of coupled BJTs (one with
n-p-n and another with p-n-p configurations). Outermost of the P and N type semiconductors
forms the anode and cathode while the P type semiconductor layer in the middle forms the
Gate. The Gate is used to control the firing angle to obtain the desirable duty cycle and to
turn on the SCR. In operation, SCR conducts whenever the gate is triggered by a current
pulse. Since SCR has a latching effect, once it is on it will not turn off until the current
flowing through the BJTs are less than the threshold current known as the Holding Current.
SCR is a power device and are often used in circuits where large current and voltage are
involved.
4. Can you turn off an SCR by using a trigger to the gate pulse?
No. This is due to the latching effect which causes the coupled BJTs to sustain itself and will
only turn off once the current flowing is less than the threshold current required to turn on the
BJTs. Thus by applying a gate pulse to an On SCR will not be able to turn the SCR off.

Results
TABLE 1
LED

Measured VA

Measured ILED

Off

13.86V

1.776uA

On

0.865V

12.335mA

TABLE 2
(a) LED off:
Measured V2 = ------------------------Measured ILED = ------------------------(b) LED on:
Measured V2 = ------------------------Measured ILED = ------------------------(c) To make LED on:
TRIGGERING:
Calculated V1=-------------------------Measured V1 =-------------------------Measured ILED = ------------------------(d) To measure SCR holding voltage:
HOLDING:
Calculated Vcc = ---------------------Measured Vcc =-----------------------

7.

POST EXPERIMENTAL QUIZZES:

1. When the LED of figure 1 is on, the voltage from point A to ground will be approximately
-----------2. After the LED of figure 1 comes on, the current through it is approximately -----3. When the switch of figure 1 is closed, the voltage across the lower 1K is----------4. When the switch of figure 1 is closed, the current through the Q2 is closest to----5. After the LED of figure 2 comes on, the only way to make it go off is
to------------------------------------------------------6. The calculated V1 of table 2 for triggering is closest to------------------------------7. When VCC is 12V and the LED is off in figure2, V2 is equal to -----------8. What is meant by the term Latch as it applies to the SCR?
9. Draw the circuit configuration of a latch using mechanical relay and transistor.
10. After an SCR is turned on and anode current is flowing, how do you turn it off?

Discussion
Part 1
Bipolar junction transistor (BJT) is controllable turn on which means that the
component requires a small current supply to the base of the BJT in order to turn it on. Once
the base current achieve the threshold current and VBE0.7V, the BJT will allow current to
flow from collector to emitter for n-p-n type BJT and emitter to collector for p-n-p type BJT.
Silicone Controlled Rectifier (SCR) are usually modelled as a pair N and P type which is Q1
and Q2 are interconnected to create the regenerative effect as shown in the figure below.

In the beginning of the experiment, the LED will not light up because there are no
current flowing from E to C of Q1 since the switch is open circuit. LED will only light up
when Q1 conducts allowing current flow through the LED and completing a closed loop
circuit. When the switch is closed, current will flow pass the 10k resistor to base of Q2.
With sufficient current, Q2 will turn on allowing IC2 to flow. IC2 which is also a part of the base
current for Q1 will flow thus turning on Q1. When Q1 turns on allowing I C1 to flow, it will be
able to short the LED from Vcc to ground thus turning the LED on as shown below.

IC2

IC1

From step 4, the switch was opened but notice that the LED continues to light up. This
phenomenon
is due to the regenerative effect of the two BJTs whereby they are able to
4
sustain themselves even after the switch is open but given that the base current to Q1 and Q2
are equal to or more than the threshold current to turn the BJT on. Ideally the regenerative
effect will only stop if the base current to either one of the BJTs are lower than threshold thus
turning the BJT off. However due to internal resistance that presence within the components,
the current
5 will soon die out thus causing the LED to stop lighting up. Other than that, since
Q1 is conducting due to regenerative effect the LED will still continue to light up even
though the switch is open. A partial of the current also
3 flows into Q2 to continue sustaining
the regenerative effect of the BJTs.
1

While the switch remains

open in step 6, by reducing the Vcc slowly to zero we notice
2
that the LED turns off eventually. This is because by reducing the V cc, it will also reduce the
current that goes to Q2 and when the current is less than the threshold current Q2 will stop
conducting in turns turning Q1 off. When Q1 stops conducting no current will pass through
from E to C thus LED will turn off. By increasing the V cc further when the switch is open, it
will not be able to turn on the Q1 because BJT can only turn on with a small current flowing
to the base of the BJT but it will not be able to turn on when current is supplied to the emitter
of the BJT. However by closing and reopening the switch again in step 7 this will cause the
Q2 to turn on again and in turn it will turn the Q1 on allowing current flow from E to C of Q1
thus turning on the LED. At this point, opening the switch will yield the same result whereby
the LED will not turn off.

From the result obtained we notice that when the LED is off, V A exhibits a rather high
voltage compared to the source which is about 13.68V whereby the source is 15V and the
current passing through the LED, ILED was about 0.17mA however with the LED turned on,
VA drop drastically to about 0.86V while the I LED goes up to about 12mA. This can be
explained using BJT IC vs VCE graph whereby the load line represent how these BJTs act like
a switch as shown below

From the graph, in order to use a BJT as a switch we will have to switch it between
the cut off region and the saturation region. To do that, we will need to control the base
current of the BJT. When there is no current flowing to the base of the BJT, the BJT is turned
off or so called in the cut-off region. This means that the current flow will be low or
theoretically zero. From the graph we can also observed this behaviour whereby when I B is
less than zero VCEVCC. Thus this explained why VA which is analogous to VCE in this
experiment exhibits a high voltage value while IC exhibits a low value of current.
Other than that, the same concept applies to the condition where the LED is turned on.
When the switch is closed, current flows to the base of Q2 thus activating Q1 and allowing
current IC1 to flow thus the value of this current about 12mA is higher than when the BJT is
off which is about 0.17mA. The increase in current flow also lights up the LED indicating
that the BJT is now in the saturation region as shown in the graph above. With increase of
current flow IC1, we can observe from the graph that VCE will decrease. This coincides with
our result whereby VA has dropped from an initial of 13.68V to a mere 0.86V. This concludes
the validity of the experimental result for part 1 of the experiment.

Part 2

Part 3

5V
1N753

100

RS2761076

1k