CONTENTS:

DIAC

TRIAC

OTHER TYPES OF THYRISTOR:

MOS-Controlled Thyristor (MCT)

Static Induction Thyristor (SITH)
Gate Turn-off Thyristor (GTO)

Submitted by: Kharolina Mae A. Bautista

DIAC

The DIode AC switch, or Diac for short, is

another solid state, three-layer, two-
junction semiconductor device but unlike
the transistor the Diac has no base
connection making it a two-terminal
device, labelled A1 and A2.

Diacs have no control or amplification but act much like a bidirectional switching
diode as they can conduct current from either polarity of a suitable AC voltage
supply. In SCRs and Triacs, we saw that in ON-OFF switching applications, these
devices could be triggered by simple circuits producing steady state gate
currents as shown.

When switch, S1 is open no gate current flows and

the lamp is OFF. When switch S1 is closed, gate
current IGflows and the SCR conducts on the
positive half cycles only as it is operating in
quadrant .
We remember also that once gated ON, the
SCR will only switch OFF again when its supply
voltage falls to a values such that its Anode
current, IA is less than the value of its holding
current, IH.

If we wish to control the mean value of the lamp current, rather than just switch it
ON or OFF, we could apply a short pulse of gate current at a pre-set trigger
point to allow conduction of the SCR to occur over part of the half-cycle only.
Then the mean value of the lamp current would be varied by changing the delay
time, T between the start of the cycle and the trigger point. This method is known
commonly as phase control.
But to achieve phase control, two things are needed. One is a variable phase
shift circuit (usually an RC passive circuit), and two, some form of trigger circuit or
device that can produce the required gate pulse when the delayed waveform
reaches a certain level. One such solid state semiconductor device that is
designed to produce these gate pulses is the Diac.
The diac is constructed like a transistor but has no base connection allowing it to
be connected into a circuit in either polarity. Diacs are primarily used as trigger
devices in phase-triggering and variable power control applications because a
diac helps provide a sharper and more instant trigger pulse (as opposed to a
steadily rising ramp voltage) which is used to turn ON the main switching device.
The diac symbol and the voltage-current characteristics curves of the diac are
given below.

Diac Symbol and I-V Characteristics

We can see from the above diac I-V characteristics curves that the diac blocks
the flow of current in both directions until the applied voltage is greater than VBR,
at which point breakdown of the device occurs and the diac conducts heavily
in a similar way to the zener diode passing a sudden pulse of voltage. This VBR point
is called the Diacs breakdown voltage or breakover voltage.
In an ordinary zener diode the voltage across it would remain constant as the
current increased. However, in the diac the transistor action causes the voltage
to reduce as the current increases. Once in the conducting state, the resistance
of the diac falls to a very low value allowing a relatively large value of current to
flow. For most commonly available diacs such as the ST2 or DB3, their breakdown
voltage typically ranges from about 25 to 35 volts. Higher breakover voltage
ratings are available, for example 40 volts for the DB4 diac.
This action gives the diac the characteristic of a negative resistance as shown
above. As the diac is a symmetrical device, it therefore has the same
characteristic for both positive and negative voltages and it is this negative
resistance action that makes the Diac suitable as a triggering device for SCRs or
triacs.
Diac Applications
As stated above, the diac is commonly used as a solid state triggering device for
other semiconductor switching devices, mainly SCRs and triacs. Triacs are widely
used in applications such as lamp dimmers and motor speed controllers and as
such the diac is used in conjunction with the triac to provide full-wave control of
the AC supply as shown.

Diac AC Phase Control

As the AC supply voltage

increases at the beginning of the
cycle, capacitor, C is charged
through the series combination of
the fixed resistor, R1 and the
potentiometer, VR1 and the
voltage across its plates increases.
When the charging voltage
reaches the breakover voltage of
the diac (about 30 V for the ST2),
the diac breaks down and the
capacitor discharges through the
diac, producing a sudden pulse of
current, which fires the triac into conduction. The phase angle at which the triac
is triggered can be varied using VR1, which controls the charging rate of the
capacitor.
Once the triac has been fired into conduction, it is maintained in its ON state
by the load current flowing through it, while the voltage across the resistor
capacitor combination is limited by the ON voltage of the triac and is
maintained until the end of the present half-cycle of the AC supply.
At the end of the half cycle the supply voltage falls to zero, reducing the current
through the triac below its holding current, IH turning it OFF and the diac stops
conduction. The supply voltage then enters its next half-cycle, the capacitor
voltage again begins to rise (this time in the opposite direction) and the cycle of
firing the triac repeats over again.
TRIAC
Another type of semiconductor device called a Triode AC Switch or Triac for
short which is also a member of the thyristor family that be used as a solid-state
power switching device but more importantly it is a bidirectional device. In
other words, a Triac can be triggered into conduction by both positive and
negative voltages applied to its Anode and with both positive and negative
trigger pulses applied to its Gate terminal making it a two-quadrant switching
Gate controlled device.
A Triac behaves just like two conventional thyristors connected together in inverse
parallel (back-to-back) with respect to each other and because of this
arrangement the two thyristors share a common Gate terminal all within a single
three-terminal package.
Since a triac conducts in both directions of a sinusoidal waveform, the concept
of an Anode terminal and a Cathode terminal used to identify the main power
terminals of a thyristor are replaced with identifications of: MT1, for Main Terminal
1 and MT2 for Main Terminal 2 with the Gate Terminal G referenced the same.
In most AC switching applications, the triac gate terminal is associated with
the MT1terminal, similar to the gate-cathode relationship of the thyristor or the
base-emitter relationship of the transistor. The construction, P-N doping and
schematic symbol used to represent a Triac is given below.

Triac Symbol and Construction

We now know that a triac is a

4-layer, PNPN in the positive
direction and a NPNP in the
negative direction, three-
terminal bidirectional device
that blocks current in its OFF
state acting like an open-circuit
switch, but unlike a
conventional thyristor, the triac
can conduct current in either
direction when triggered by a
single gate pulse. Then a triac
has four possible triggering
modes of operation as follows.
 + Mode = MT2 current positive (+ve), Gate current positive (+ve)
Mode = MT2 current positive (+ve), Gate current negative (-ve)
+ Mode = MT2 current negative (-ve), Gate current positive (+ve)
Mode = MT2 current negative (-ve), Gate current negative (-ve)
And these four modes in which a triac can be operated are shown using the triacs
I-V characteristics curves.

Triac I-V Characteristics Curves

In Quadrant , the triac is usually triggered into conduction by a positive gate

current, labelled above as mode +. But it can also be triggered by a negative
gate current, mode . Similarly, in Quadrant , triggering with a negative gate
current, G is also common, mode along with mode +. Modes and + are,
however, less sensitive configurations requiring a greater gate current to cause
triggering than the more common triac triggering modes of + and .
Also, just like silicon controlled rectifiers (SCRs), triacs also require a minimum
holding current IH to maintain conduction at the waveforms cross over point. Then
even though the two thyristors are combined into one single triac device, they still
exhibit individual electrical characteristics such as different breakdown voltages,
holding currents and trigger voltage levels exactly the same as we would expect
from a single SCR device.
Triac Applications
The Triac is most commonly used semiconductor device for switching and power
control of AC systems as the triac can be switched ON by either a positive or
negative Gate pulse, regardless of the polarity of the AC supply at that time. This
makes the triac ideal to control a lamp or AC motor load with a very basic triac
switching circuit given below.

Triac Switching Circuit

The circuit above shows a simple DC
triggered triac power switching circuit. With
switch SW1 open, no current flows into the
Gate of the triac and the lamp is therefore
OFF. When SW1 is closed, Gate current is
applied to the triac from the battery
supply VG via resistor R and the triac is driven
into full conduction acting like a closed
switch and full power is drawn by the lamp
from the sinusoidal supply.
As the battery supplies a positive Gate current
to the triac whenever switch SW1 is closed, the triac is therefore continually gated
in modes + and + regardless of the polarity of terminal MT2.
Of course, the problem with this simple triac switching circuit is that we would
require an additional positive or negative Gate supply to trigger the triac into
conduction. But we can also trigger the triac using the actual AC supply voltage
itself as the gate triggering voltage. Consider the circuit below.

Triac Switching Circuit

The circuit shows a triac used as a simple static
AC power switch providing an ON-OFF
function similar in operation to the previous DC
circuit. When switch SW1 is open, the triac
acts as an open switch and the lamp passes
zero current. When SW1 is closed the triac is
gated ON via current limiting resistor R and
self-latches shortly after the start of each half-
cycle, thus switching full power to the lamp
load.
As the supply is sinusoidal AC, the triac
automatically unlatches at the end of each AC half-cycle as the instantaneous
supply voltage and thus the load current briefly falls to zero but re-latches again
using the opposite thyristor half on the next half cycle as long as the switch
remains closed. This type of switching control is generally called full-wave control
due to the fact that both halves of the sine wave are being controlled.
As the triac is effectively two back-to-back connected SCRs, we can take this
triac switching circuit further by modifying how the gate is triggered as shown
below.

Modified Triac Switching Circuit

As above, if switch SW1 is open

at position A, there is no gate
current and the lamp is OFF. If
the switch is moved to
position B gate current flows at
every half cycle the same as
before and full power is drawn
by the lamp as the triac
operates in modes +and .
However this time when the
switch is connected to
position C, the diode will prevent
the triggering of the gate
when MT2 is negative as the diode is reverse biased. Thus the triac only conducts
on the positive half-cycles operating in mode I+ only and the lamp will light at half
power. Then depending upon the position of the switch the load is Off, at Half
Power or Fully ON.

Triac Phase Control

Another common type of triac switching circuit uses phase control to vary the
amount of voltage, and therefore power applied to a load, in this case a motor,
for both the positive and negative halves of the input waveform. This type of AC
motor speed control gives a fully variable and linear control because the voltage
can be adjusted from zero to the full applied voltage as shown.
Triac Phase Control
This basic phase triggering circuit uses
the triac in series with the motor across
an AC sinusoidal supply. The variable
resistor, VR1 is used to control the
amount of phase shift on the gate of
the triac which in turn controls the
amount of voltage applied to the
motor by turning it ON at different
times during the AC cycle.
The triacs triggering voltage is derived
from the VR1 C1 combination via
the Diac (The diac is a bidirectional
semiconductor device that helps provide a sharp trigger current pulse to fully turn-
ON the triac).
At the start of each cycle, C1 charges up via the variable resistor, VR1. This
continues until the voltage across C1 is sufficient to trigger the diac into
conduction which in turn allows capacitor, C1 to discharge into the gate of the
triac turning it ON.
Once the triac is triggered into conduction and saturates, it effectively shorts out
the gate triggering phase control circuit connected in parallel across it and the
triac takes control for the remainder of the half-cycle.
As we have seen above, the triac turns-OFF automatically at the end of the half-
cycle and the VR1 C1 triggering process starts again on the next half cycle.
However, because the triac requires differing amounts of gate current in each
switching mode of operation, for example + and , a triac is therefore
asymmetrical meaning that it may not trigger at the exact same point for each
positive and negative half cycle.
This simple triac speed control circuit is suitable for not only AC motor speed
control but for lamp dimmers and electrical heater control and in fact is very
similar to a triac light dimmer used in many homes. However, a commercial triac
dimmer should not be used as a motor speed controller as generally triac light
dimmers are intended to be used with resistive loads only such as incandescent
lamps.
Then we can end this Triac Tutorial by summarising its main points as follows:
A Triac is another 4-layer, 3-terminal thyristor device similar to the SCR.
The Triac can be triggered into conduction in either direction.
There are four possible triggering modes for a Triac, of which 2 are preferred.
MOS Controlled Thyristor (MCT)
Out of many semiconductor controlled devices, MCT is considered to be the
latest. The device is basically a thyristor with two MOSFETs built into the gate
structure. A MOSFET is used for turning ON the MCT and another one is used for
turning it OFF. The device is mostly used for switching applications and has other
characteristics like high frequency, high power, and low conduction drop and so
on. An MCT combines the feature of both conventional four layer thyristor having
regenerative action and MOS- gate structure. In this device, all the gate signals
are applied with respect to anode, which is kept as the reference. In a normally
used SCR, cathode is kept as the reference terminal for gate signals.
The basic structure of an MCT cell is shown in the figure below.

In practice, a MCT will include thousands of these basic cells connected in

parallel, just like a PMOSFET. This helps in obtaining a high current carrying
capacity for the device.
The equivalent circuit of the MCT is shown in the figure below.

It consists of an ON-FET, an OFF-FET and two transistors. The MOS structure of the
MCT is represented in the equivalent circuit. It consists of one ON-FET, a p-channel
MOSFET, and an OFF-FET. Both n-p-n and p-n-p transistors are joined together to
represent the n-p-n-p structure of MCT. An n-channel MOSFET is represented by
drawing the arrow towards the gate terminal. A p-channel MOSFET is indicated
by drawing the arrow away from the gate terminal. The two transistors in the
equivalent circuit indicate that there is regenerative feedback in the MCT just as
it is an ordinary thyristor. The circuit symbol of MCT is shown below.
Turning ON Process
The device is turned ON by a negative voltage pulse at the gate with respect to
the anode. For turning ON MCT, gate is made negative with respect to anode by
the voltage pulse between gate and anode. So, MCT must be initially forward
biased, and then only a negative voltage be applied. With the application of this
negative voltage pulse, ON-FET gets turned ON whereas OFF-FET is already OFF.
With ON-FET ON, current begins to flow from anode A, through ON-FET and then
as the base current and emitter of n-p-n transistor and then to cathode K. This
turns on n-p-n transistor. This causes the collector current to flow in n-p-n transistor.
As OFF FET is OFF, this collector current of npn transistor acts as the base current
of p-n-p transistor. Subsequently, p-n-p transistor is also turned ON. If both the
transistors are ON, regenerative action of the connection scheme takes place
and the MCT is turned ON.

Turning OFF process

The device is turned OFF by applying a positive voltage pulse at the gate. The
positive voltage pulse causes the OFF-FET to turn ON and ON-FET to turn OFF. After
OFF-FET is turned ON, emitter based terminals of p-n-p transistor are short circuited
by OFF-FET. So, now anode current begins to flow through OFF-FET and thus base
current of p-n-p transistor begins to decrease. The device has the disadvantage
of reverse voltage blocking capability.

Advantages of MCT
1. Low forward conduction drop
2. Fast TURN-ON and then OFF times
3. Low switching losses
4. High gate input impedance
STATIC INDUCTION THYRISTOR (SITH)
The static induction thyristor (SITh) or field-controlled diode (FCD) was
first introduced by Teszner in the 1960s. This device is capable of conducting
large currents with a low forward voltage and turn-off quickly.

It is a self-controlled GTO-like on-off device that was commercially introduced by

Toyo Electric Co. (Toyo Denki) of Japan in 1988. It belongs to a family of Static
Induction Device and is a high power high frequency power semiconductor
device. It is essentially a p+nn+ diode with a buried p+ grid like gate structure. The
device structure is analogous to SIT except that a
p+ layer has been added to the anode side.

Static induction devices

There are many devices which belong to the static induction devices family:

Static Induction Transistor (SIT)

Static Induction Diode (SID)
Static Induction Thyristor
Static Induction Transistor Logic (SITL)
Static Induction MOS Transistor (SIMOS)
Features
Since they are normally on-state, gate electrodes must be negatively
biased to hold off-state.
The SI-thyristor at on-state behaves similar to pin diodes.
The on-state voltage is low in the Si-thyristor, which is due to thyristor action
followed by carrier injection effect around the gate channel.Minority-
carrier device (a JFET structure with an additional injectinglayer).
Power-handling capability similar to GTO.
Faster switching speeds than GTO.
Level-triggered and Voltage-driven (voltage-controlled) devices.
FABRICATION
Many interesting works have been done on fabricating different structures of SITH
to improve its forward blocking and switching characteristics, such as anode-
shorting pattern, shallow-junction pattern and double-gate pattern.

Basic Structure of SITH

Basic structural types of SITH had been developed in recent years, such as buried
gate, surface gate, recessed gate, double dielectrics gate and buried gate with
diffused source region (DSR buried-gate).

It is normally ON state device, i.e if the anode is positive and the gate voltage is
zero, the device will behave like a diode and current will flow freely.

The forward biasing of the P+ N junction will cause a hole injection into the region
N- region and its conductivity will be modulated.

When the gate is reversed biased with respect to cathode, a depletion layer will
block Anode current. As a results device gets OFF.

Evidently it is not a thyristor like structure like trigger into conduction device but
somewhat SIT like V-I characteristics with varying Negative gate bias.

WORKING
ON-STATE

When a positive voltage pulse is applied to the gates, the depletion

regionis filled with carriers and the device becomes on-state.

The transition time of the turn-on process is largely dominated by the

rateof the carrier injection time.

At the turn-on phase the SI-thyristor acts just like as a pin-diode.

OFF-STATE

Since SITh is normally ON state, the gate electrodes have to benegatively

biased.

The negative bias voltage to the gate forms a low-conductive

depletionregion around the gates and the SI-thyristor holds off-state.

Some examples
Advantages
The device has also high immunity for electromagnetic noise.

SITh has high di/dt and dv/dt critical ratio. capable of handling rapid
voltage or current changes.

Its a vertical structure device with short multichannel. Being a vertical

device, the SITh offers advantages in obtaining higher breakdown
voltages than FET.

Disadvantages
One of the disadvantages of the SIT is the relatively flat shape of the
potential barrier. This leads to slow, diffusion based transport of carriers in
the vicinity of the potential barrier.

SPECIFICATIONS

Short channel length

Low gate series resistance
Low gate source capacitance
Small thermal resistance
Low noise
High audio frequency power capability
The forward blocking voltage of this SITH has been increased to 1600 Vfrom the
previous value of 1000 V,
The blocking gain increased from 40 to 70,
A high anode blocking voltage VAK and switching speed are
necessary parameters for SITH with good performance
Gate Turn Off Thyristor
Although the thyristor is extensively used in high power applications, it always
suffered from being a semi-controlled device. Even though it could be switched
ON by applying a gate signal, it has to be turned OFF by interrupting the main
current using a commutation circuit.

In case of DC to DC and DC to AC conversion circuits, this becomes a serious

deficiency with thyristor due to the absence of natural current zero (as in case of
AC circuits). Hence, the development of Gate Turn off Thyristor (GTO) addresses
the major problem of the thyristor by ensuring the turn OFF mechanism through
the gate terminal.

A Gate Turn off Thyristor or GTO is a three terminal, bipolar (current controlled
minority carrier) semiconductor switching device. Similar to conventional thyristor,
the terminals are anode, cathode and gate as shown in figure below. As the
name indicates, it has gate turn off capability.

These are capable not only to turn ON the main current with a gate drive circuit,
but also to turn it OFF. A small positive gate current triggers the GTO into
conduction mode and also by a negative pulse on the gate, it is capable of
being turned off. Observe in below figure that the gate has double arrows on it
which distinguish the GTO from normal thyristor. This indicates the bidirectional
current flow through the gate terminal.
The gate current required to turn off the GTO is relatively high. For example, a GTO
rated with 4000V and 3000A may need -750A gate current to switch it off. So the
typical turn off gain of GTO is low and is in the range of 4 to 5. Due to this large
negative current, GTOs are used in low power applications.

On the other hand, during the conduction state GTO behaves just like a thyristor
with a small ON state voltage drop. The GTO has faster switching speed than the
thyristor and has higher voltage and current ratings than the power transistors.

Several varieties of GTOs are available in todays market with asymmetric and
symmetric voltage capabilities. GTOs with identical forward and reverse blocking
capabilities are called as symmetric GTOs (S-GTOs). These are used in current
source inverters, but these are somewhat slower. Mostly asymmetric GTOs (A-
GTOs) are used due to its lower ON state voltage drop and stable temperature
characteristics.

These asymmetrical GTOs have an appreciable reverse voltage capability

(typically 20 to 25 V). These are used where either the reverse voltage across it
would never occur or a reverse conducting diode is connected across the circuit.
This article describes only about asymmetric GTOs.
Construction of a Gate Turn-Off Thyristor
Consider the below structure of GTO, which is almost similar to the thyristor. It is
also a four layer, three junction P-N-P-N device like a standard thyristor. In this, the
n+ layer at the cathode end is highly doped to obtain high emitter efficiency. This
result the breakdown voltage of the junction J3 is low which is typically in the
range of 20 to 40 volts.

The doping level of the p type gate is highly graded because the doping level
should be low to maintain high emitter efficiency, whereas for having a good turn
OFF properties, doping of this region should be high. In addition, gate and
cathodes should be highly interdigited with various geometric forms to optimize
the current turn off capability.

The junction between the P+ anode and N base is called anode junction. A
heavily doped P+ anode region is required to obtain the higher efficiency anode
junction so that a good turn ON properties is achieved. However, the turn OFF
capabilities are affected with such GTOs.

This problem can be solved by introducing heavily doped N+ layers at regular

intervals in P+ anode layer as shown in figure. So this N+ layer makes a direct
contact with N layer at junction J1. This cause the electrons to travel from base N
region directly to anode metal contact without causing hole injection from P+
anode. This is called as a anode shorted GTO structure.
Due to these anode shorts, the reverse blocking capacity of the GTO is reduced
to the reverse breakdown voltage of junction j3 and hence speeds up the turn
OFF mechanism.

However, with a large number of anode shorts, the efficiency of the anode
junction reduces and hence the turn ON performance of the GTO degrades.
Therefore, careful considerations have to be taken about the density of these
anode shorts for a good turn ON and OFF performance.

Gate Turn-Off Thyristor Operation Principles

The turn ON operation of GTO is similar to a conventional thyristor. When the
anode terminal is made positive with respect to cathode by applying a positive
gate current, the hole current injection from gate forward bias the cathode p-
base junction. This results in the emission of electrons from the cathode towards
the anode terminal. This induces the hole injection from the anode terminal into
the base region. This injection of holes and electrons continuous till the GTO comes
into the conduction state. In case of thyristor, the conduction starts initially by
turning ON the area of cathode adjacent to the gate terminal. And thus, by
plasma spreading the remaining area comes into the conduction. Unlike a
thyristor, GTO consists of narrow cathode elements which are heavily
interdigitated with gate terminal, thereby initial turned ON area is very large and
plasma spreading is small. Hence the GTO comes into the conduction state very
quickly.
To turn OFF a conducting GTO, a reverse bias is applied at the gate by making
the gate negative with respect to cathode. A part of the holes from the P base
layer is extracted through the gate which suppress the injection of electrons from
the cathode.

In response to this, more hole current is extracted through the gate results more
suppression of electrons from the cathode. Eventually, the voltage drop across
the p base junction causes to reverse bias the gate cathode junction and hence
the GTO is turned OFF.

During the hole extraction process, the p-base region is gradually depleted so
that the conduction area squeezed. As this process continuous, the anode
current flows through remote areas forming high current density filaments. This
causes local hot spots which can damage the device unless these filaments are
extinguished quickly.

By the application of high negative gate voltage these filaments are extinguished
rapidly. Due to the N base region stored charge, the anode to gate current
continues to flow even though the cathode current is ceased. This is called a tail
current which decays exponentially as the excess charge carriers are reduced by
the recombination process. Once the tail current reduced to a leakage current
level, the device retains its forward blocking characteristics.

V-I Characteristics of Gate Turn-Off Thyristor

During the turn ON, GTO is similar to thyristor in its operates. So, the first quadrant
characteristics are similar to the thyristor. When the anode is made positive with
respect to cathode, the device operates in forward blocking mode. By the
application of positive gate signal triggers, the GTO into conduction state. The
latching current and forward leakage currents are considerably higher in GTO
compared to the thyristor as shown in figure. The gate drive can be removed if
the anode current is above the holding current level. But it is recommended not
to remove the positive gate drive during conduction and to hold at value more
than the maximum critical gate current. This is because the cathode is subdivided
into small finger elements as discussed above to assist the turn OFF process. This
causes the anode current dips below the holding current level transiently, which
forces a high anode current at a high rate back into the GTO. This can be
potentially destructive. Therefore, some manufacturers recommend the
continuous gate signal during the conduction state.
The GTO can be turned OFF by the application of reverse gate current which can
be either step or ramp drive. The GTO can be turned OFF without reversing anode
voltage. The dashed line in the figure shows i-v trajectory during the turn OFF for
an inductive load. It should be noted that during the turn OFF, GTO can block a
rated forward voltage only.

To avoid dv/dt triggering and protect the device during turn OFF, either a
recommended value of resistance must be connected between the gate and
cathode or a small reverse bias voltage (typically -2V) must be maintained on the
gate terminal. This prevents the gate cathode junction to become forward biased
and hence the GTO sustains during the turn OFF state.

In reverse biased condition of GTO, the blocking capability is depends on the type
of GTO. A symmetric GTO has a high reverse blocking capability while asymmetric
GTO has a small reverse blocking capability as shown in figure.

It is observed that, during reverse biased condition, after a small reverse voltage
(20 to 30 V) GTO starts conducting in reverse direction due to the anode short
structure. This mode of operation does not destroy the device provided that the
gate is negatively biased and the time of this operation should be small.

Gate Turn-Off Thyristor Applications

Due to the advantages like excellent switching characteristics, no need of
commutation circuit, maintenance-free operation, etc makes the GTO usage
predominant over thyristor in many applications. It is used as a main control
device in choppers and inverters. Some of these applications are

AC drives
DC drives or DC choppers
AC stabilizing power supplies
DC circuit breakers
Induction heating
And other low power applications

REFERENCES:
http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/power/diac.html
http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/power/triac.html
http://www.circuitstoday.com/mos-controlled-thyristor-mct
https://www.scribd.com/doc/169347410/STATIC-INDUCTION-THYRISTOR-SITH
http://www.electronicshub.org/gate-turn-off-thyristor/