Reverse Bias
IGCT are available with or without reverse blocking capability. Reverse blocking capability adds to the forward voltage drop because of the need to have a long, low doped P1 region.
IGCT capable of blocking reverse voltage are known as symmetrical IGCT, abbreviated S-IGCT. Usually, the reverse blocking voltage rating and forward blocking voltage rating are the same. The typical application for symmetrical IGCT is in current source inverters.
IGCT incapable of blocking reverse voltage are known as asymmetrical IGCT, abbreviated A-IGCT. They typically have a reverse breakdown rating in the 10's of volts. A-IGCT are used where either a reverse conducting diode is applied in parallel (for example, in voltage source inverters) or where reverse voltage would never occur (for example, in switching power supplies or DC traction choppers).
Asymmetrical IGCT can be fabricated with a reverse conducting diode in the same package. These are known as RC-ICT, for reverse conducting IGCT.
Read more about this topic: Integrated Gate-commutated Thyristor
Famous quotes containing the words reverse and/or bias:
“During the late war [the American Revolution] I had an infallible rule for deciding what [Great Britain] would do on every occasion. It was, to consider what they ought to do, and to take the reverse of that as what they would assuredly do, and I can say with truth that I was never deceived.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The solar system has no anxiety about its reputation, and the credit of truth and honesty is as safe; nor have I any fear that a skeptical bias can be given by leaning hard on the sides of fate, of practical power, or of trade, which the doctrine of Faith cannot down-weigh.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)