Are you familiar with home appliances? Small dimmer lights, induction cookers, washing machines, electric ovens, etc. are actually inseparable from small components – thyristors.
In simple terms, thyristors are mainly used to convert electrical energy with high efficiency, accurately convert electrical energy into various electrical standards, and provide them to various electronic products used in our lives. Today, discrete semiconductors such as thyristors, as the basic core of power electronic technology, play an important role and are widely used. Electronic products and power equipment have huge demand for thyristor devices. In the fields of industrial control, automotive electronics, network communication, etc., thyristors have a broad market.
Thyristor style
Thyristor Definition
Let’s take a look at its basic definition first. According to the IEC standard (International Electrotechnical Commission), a three-terminal four-layer, volt-ampere characteristic has a bistable state of conduction and blocking, and can be switched between the two states. Power semiconductor devices are called thyristors.
Simple to understand, like a small switch. A tiny power is used as a toggle switch signal to continuously control and transform the passing high-power current. The design of inverters, frequency converters, etc. is based on this feature. It is not only used as a non-contact switch, but also can detect, amplify, and modulate the signal, and calmly realize “controlling the big with the small”.
Structure and composition
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Thyristor structure composition
The above is a typical structure diagram, the anode A and the cathode K are the paths of large current signals, and the gate level G is used for control. The high-voltage and high-power terminals are controlled by the low-voltage low-power terminals. After receiving the forward voltage, the gate stage G needs to have a trigger signal (current) to conduct (AK) at this time. However, after being turned on, the AK can only be turned off when the current in the AK path is reduced to a certain threshold, or the AK can be turned off by directly applying a reverse voltage to the rectifier circuit.
Processing material
Thyristor main parameters
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In terms of material research and development, many companies have turned to wide-bandgap materials (gallium nitride, silicon carbide, zinc oxide, etc.), which have better withstand voltage, loss, and thermal conductivity characteristics, and have a smaller volume but achieve higher conversion efficiency. Compared with other semiconductor materials, silicon carbide (SiC) materials have excellent physical characteristics in terms of high forbidden band width, high breakdown strength, and low dielectric constant. In practical applications, its energy loss and heat generation are only 50% of those of traditional thyristors, and the volume is smaller at the same power level. It is foreseeable that related wide bandgap materials will become the driving force for industry research and development.
The thyristor is basically made of a single piece of silicon, which requires etching, polishing, oxidation, photolithography, diffusion, passivation, evaporation, bonding, encapsulation, testing and other process links. The upstream products are mainly suppliers of monocrystalline silicon, metals and reagents. The price fluctuation of monocrystalline silicon has the most direct impact on the cost of thyristor. my country’s monocrystalline silicon industry is mainly concentrated in the western region, and has been on the rise since 2020 due to regional influences (earthquakes) and international policies. The downstream applications are very extensive, involving consumer electronics, network equipment, electronic lighting, etc. In recent years, with the support of national policies, the new energy vehicle industry has developed rapidly, which has also driven the development of thyristors.