Early-time turn-on characteristics of a high current thyristor

Studies and experiments aimed at increasing the turn-on speed of high current thyristors have been carried out to meet an expanding need in the pulsed power field for switches with high peak power handling capacity and high pulse repetition rate capability. The present tests were conducted to measure the early-time turn-on characteristics of ABB 2003-45A02 thyristors and to determine whether special triggering techniques could raise the safe turn-on rate to the 100000 A/μS range which would qualify it for applications such as direct drive accelerator circuits. Results were encouraging. With these devices and special triggering techniques a maximum turn-on rate of 65373 A/μs and a peak current of 19040 A were recorded at a pulse repetition rate of 5 Hz