Optimum Snubbers for Power Semiconductors

It is generally necessary to connect an RC snubber across a power rectifier or thyristor to absorb the energy associated with the recovery current of the device and limit the resulting voltage spike and rate of rise dv/dt. For a given snubber capacitance, it is shown that there is an optimum damping resistance which minimizes the peak voltage, but a lower resistance is required to minimize the average dv/dt to the peak. Design procedures are derived for selecting the capacitance and optimum resistance to limit the peak voltage or dv/dt to specified values. The device recovery current is trapped in circuit inductance, and its energy must be dissipated, while the snubber produces additional losses as the price of performing its limiting function.