A TRIAC, or Triode for Alternating Current is an electronic component approximately equivalent to

two silicon-controlled rectifiers (SCRs/thyristors) joined in inverse parallel (paralleled but with the polarity
reversed) and with their gates connected together. The formal name for a TRIAC is bidirectional triode
thyristor. This results in a bidirectional electronic switch which can conduct current in either direction
when it is triggered (turned on) and thus doesn't have any polarity. It can be triggered by either a positive
or a negative voltage being applied to its gate electrode (with respect to A1, otherwise known as MT1).
Once triggered, the device continues to conduct until the current through it drops below a certain
threshold value, the holding current, such as at the end of a half-cycle of alternating current (AC) mains
power. This makes the TRIAC a very convenient switch for AC circuits, allowing the control of very large
power flows with milliampere-scale control currents. In addition, applying a trigger pulse at a controllable
point in an AC cycle allows one to control the percentage of current that flows through the TRIAC to the
load (phase control).

Contents
[hide]

• 1 Applicati

on

• 2 Example

data

• 3 Alternisto

• 4 See also

• 5 Reference

• 6 External

links

[edit]Application

Low power TRIACs are used in many applications such as light dimmers, speed controls for electric
fans and other electric motors, and in the modern computerized control circuits of many
household small and major appliances.

However, when used with inductive loads such as electric fans, care must be taken to assure that the
TRIAC will turn off correctly at the end of each half-cycle of the AC power.
A snubber circuit (usually of the RC type) is often used between A1 and A2 to assist this turn-off. Snubber
circuits are also used to prevent premature triggering, caused for example by voltage spikes in the mains
supply. Also, a gate resistor or capacitor (or both in parallel) may be connected between gate and A1 to
further prevent false triggering. That, however, increases the required trigger current and / or adds latency
(capacitor charging).

For higher-powered, more-demanding loads, two SCRs in inverse parallel may be used instead of one
TRIAC. Because each SCR will have an entire half-cycle of reverse polarity voltage applied to it, turn-off
of the SCRs is assured, no matter what the character of the load. However, due to the separate gates,
proper triggering of the SCRs is more complex than triggering a TRIAC.

In addition to commutation, a TRIAC may also not turn on reliably with non-resistive loads if the phase
shift of the current prevents achieving holding currentat trigger time. To overcome that, pulse trains may
be used to repeatedly try to trigger the TRIAC until it finally turns on. The advantage is that the gate
current does not need to be maintained throughout the entire conduction angle, which can be beneficial
when there is only limited drive capability available.

[edit]Example data

Variable
Parameter Typical value Unit
name

Vgt Gate threshold Voltage 1.5 V

Igt Gate threshold Current 10 - 35 mA

tgt Gate controlled turn-on time 2 μs

Vdrm Repetitive peak off-state Voltages 600-800 V

It RMS on-state current Non-repetitive peak 4-16 A

[1]

[edit]Alternistor
Alternistor is a trade name for a proprietary class of TRIAC with an improved turn-off (commutation)
characteristic formerly made by Teccor Electronics and other companies.

These devices are made specifically for improved commutation when controlling a highly-inductive load,
such as a motor, an application which causes problems for "normal" triacs due to high voltage/current
angles. Most triacs' commutation with inductive loads can be improved by use of a "snubber network", but
alternistors are made specifically for this purpose and they dispose of the snubber requirement altogether.
This improvement is achieved at the expense of the ability to trigger the device in the 4th quadrant
(negative voltage and positive gate current). However, this is usually no problem, because this trigger
mode is seldom used since even normal TRIACs are least sensitive there.

Other semiconductor manufacturers, such as ST Microelectronics and NXP have their own versions of
improved commutation triac, but they are not marketing them under the proprietary "alternistor" moniker
(ST uses the trademark "SNUBBERLESS" and NXP has "Hi-Com" three-quadrant triac).
We learnt on chapter 8 how to use a transistor as a switch drived by a small current. We should remark
that the transistor can work only with DC currents and voltages. Well, if you are looking for a device that is
able to do a similar task but with AC signals, there is no doubt that what you need is a TRIAC.
The TRIAC is a three-terminal electronic device, wich works as a switch for AC signals. With a small
current injected on the GATE, it enables a relatively high AC current between T1 and T2 terminals.
We can see below the TRIAC's semiconductor chip, its symbol and physical appearance.

TRIAC's Basic Functionality

Be an AC load, like an incandescent lamp or an electric heater, connected to an AC line trough a TRIAC
as shown in the picture below. While no voltage is applied between gate and T1, the TRIAC will operate
as an open switch, allowing no current to flow.
But if we apply a voltage pulse at the gate, the TRIAC will immediately switch on, letting pass the current
through the load, it doesn't matter if is a positive or negative hemicycle, neither the input's polarity. Once
triggered, the TRIAC will continue conducting current, even in the absence of the input voltage. It will
switch off just when the current through it becomes too low, wich happens at the end of the AC
hemicycle.
Would the Triac be able to work with direct current? Yes, but once triggered it will continue indefinitely
switched on. So it has very limited applications on the dc field.
In order to call things by its name, let's take a look to the datasheet of a classical TRIAC for low current
applications the TIC 206.

Gate Trigger Voltage and Gate

Trigger Current: they are the input signal conditions needed to trigger the TRIAC. We must choose the
input voltage and limiting resistor in order to get a several times higher current than the required for the
triggering. Let's analize just that part of the circuit.
In our example, we want to use a 12 Volt
pulse, but we cannot apply it directly to the
gate, we need a limiting resistor. We know
that the gate trigger voltage is 2 Volt as a
maximum. The gate trigger current is 10mA,
so we will choose a bigger value in order to
assure the triggering, let's take 30 mA. The
voltage across the resistor is:

So if we want a gate trigger current of

approximately 30 mA, we will need a
limiting resistor of 330 ohm, this way the
gate current is:

(by Ohm's law)

Latching and Holding Current: these parameters refer to the current between T2 and T1 terminals,
which is the same that the load current. As we said before, once triggered, the TRIAC will remain
conducting. Well this is true whenever the current on the load at the moment of the triggering exceeds
the Latching Current. And when we said "It will switch off when the current becomes too low", this
threshhold is specified by the Holding Current value, which is lower than the latching current.
From a practical point of view, we just need to verify that the load current is far bigger than the latching
and holding currents (five to ten times at least). In our case, the latching current is 30mA, so the circuit will
work perfectly with currents above 150mA rms.
Let's assume that we are going to drive a pure resistive load, as a solderer, as the rms voltage is 110
Volt, the solderer's minimum power should be:

This assures that the TRIAC will be able to conduce near the 100% of the hemicycle when needed.

In the previous explanations, we have used a pulse to trigger the TRIAC, and this is an usual practice,
but, is it mandatory?
No, it is not, in fact you can switch on the TRIAC with a DC voltage and keep it active for an indefinite
period of time.
The importance of the TRIACs is that they allow us to drive a high voltage AC load from a low-voltage
electronic circuit, as we will see next.

A Simple Application
We use here a flip-flop oscillator studied on chapter 13, to trigger a TRIAC circuit, for switching on and off
a lamp alternately.

The flip-flop generates a pulsed signal, and the PNP transistor TIP30 injects it into the gate with the
appropriate current capacity. The 1K resistor and the 0.1uF capacitor in paralell with the TRIAC configure
what is called a snubber circuit, which improves the TRIAC stability, avoiding spurious triggering.

The power supply has no precision requirements, and can be solved as shown below, giving a voltage
near 12 V. For more details about power supply design, see chapters 1 and 3.

Warning again, be aware that the whole circuit, including transistors and stuff is connected to a 110V AC
line, so when the circuit is energized, any contact with people must be avoided .
To reduce the risk, It is recommended that the ground of the circuit coincides to the neutral of the 110V
AC line.

At his point, it is interesting to note that we are starting to combine circuit blocks from different chapters,
designing each part separately. The same applies when you have to test the circuit or detect a problem.
In this case you will first check if the power supply gives about 11 to 12 Volt filtered, then you will check if
the flip-flop oscillates, and finally if the triac is being properly triggered.