Comparative Study of Thyristor vs IGBT Based AC-DC Power Converter

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative study of the application of Thyristor versus IGBT in AC-DC controlled power converter. Both simulation and practical experiment have been carried out to test the relationship between the average output voltage (Vdc) with firing angle (α, for Thyristor) and triggering pulse width (, for IGBT). Also the total harmonic distortion (THD) has been observed in both the cases. It is observed that IGBT based power converter introduces more harmonics in the system, in spite of more symmetrical output voltage wave shape.