Advantages and disadvantages of TRIAC
TRIAC is a three-terminal semiconductor electronic component that has been conducted in both directions, this is why TRIAC is known as a bidirectional thyristor device.
TRIAC is known as the Triode for alternating current, which is used exclusively to control the power in AC circuits.
The construction of TRIAC is just like connecting two SCRs in anti-parallel with gate terminals joined together.
The TRIAC device are been mainly used for power controlling and power switching applications.
Advantages of TRIAC
- It can be triggered with positive and negative polarity gate pulses
- They required only a single fuse for protection
- A safe breakdown in either direction is possible but SCR protection should be given with a parallel diode.
- They require only a single heat sink
- When the voltage towards the TRIAC becomes zero, we can turn OFF the device.
- TRIAC needs a very little amount of current to trigger
- Very less capacitance effect will occur when TRIAC drives switching operation
- Can switches on both half of an AC waves
Explanation for advantages of TRIAC
Triggers with both polarities
The TRIAC is a three-terminal device, which is been designed to work at both polarities. TRIAC is a similar electronic component compared to DIAC, only difference TRIAC had is the triggering terminal.
They need a single heat sink & protection fuse
The TRIAC component only needs a single heat sink to overcome the power dissipation that happened at the device, this is for multiple reasons such as the TRIAC being enclosed in a large device package.
And the single fuse is only needed for the protection of the device, this is because TRIAC is a power device because at the time the voltage becomes zero, the TRIAC will shut off.
TRIAC needs very little current for triggering
The TRIAC component needs only a little current trigger, the latching current of the TRIAC is known as the triggering current.
TRIAC had less capacitance effect at switching operation
TRIAC had less capacitance effect at switching operation, different blocks at TRIAC experience capacitance at the device.
Disadvantages of TRIAC
- It has a very high switching delay
- They are not suitable for DC applications
- They can be triggered in any direction, so we need to carefully about the triggering circuit.
- The dv/dt rating is very low compared to the SCR device
- They had a low switching speed
- TRIAC device is highly affected by radio frequencies.
- TRIAC has very small switching frequencies.
Explanation for disadvantages of DIAC
TRIAC is Suitable for DC applications
The TRIAC device is suitable for DC applications, this is because TRIAC is a device which had access to the positive and negative portion of the AC signal.
Carefully about triggering the circuit
The TRIAC had 3 or 4 different modes for triggering, so any changes to that configuration will badly affect the whole operation of the device.
