A Novel Approach to Accurately Determine the $t_{q}$ Parameter of Thyristors

The continued use of high-voltage thyristor devices in industry and their increased use in high-voltage dc transmission systems call for more attention to the properties of these devices. One of the important thyristor parameters is their turn-off time t
_q
, which can be a limiting factor when applying thyristors at elevated switching frequencies. Hence, the accurate measurement of tq and its variation versus the operating conditions remains a crucial task for thyristor converters operating at elevated switching frequencies. In this paper, a proper test circuit for measuring this parameter with a high level of accuracy has been designed and built. Owing to the test circuit specificity, the variation effects of several electrical and physical constraints, such as the forward current IF , the reverse applied voltage VR, the operating temperature To, and the ramp rate of the forward reapplied voltage dVD/dt, on the tq parameter of thyristors are also studied and analyzed based on the physics of semiconductor devices and associated simulations.