A comparative study of the transient response of GTO thyristors

Abstract A variety of methods of analysing, predicting and modelling thyristor characteristics have been attempted over many years, culminating in sophisticated numerical simulations requiring considerable computing power. the deficiencies of some early mathematical analyses of transient and frequency related response are identified and an improved formulation given. The resulting predictions are compared with and supported by practical frequency-scanned measurements in the low current grounded gate blocking mode. A selected feature is similarly modelled using the latest techniques and good correlation shown. The method has been found particularly relevant to GTO thyristors where the parameters extracted from the measurements may be used in the control of the production process and related to the full power performance of completed devices.