Gate turn-off thyristor

Gate turn-off thyristor GTO

Simplified cross section of a GTO thyristor
Type	active
Pin configuration	anode, gate, cathode
Electronic symbol

A gate turn-off thyristor (GTO) is a special type of thyristor, which is a high-power semiconductor device. It was invented at General Electric. GTOs, as opposed to normal thyristors, are fully controllable switches which can be turned on and off by their third lead, the GATE lead.

Normal thyristors (silicon-controlled rectifiers) are not fully controllable switches (a "fully controllable switch" can be turned on and off at will). Thyristors can only be turned ON and cannot be turned OFF. Thyristors are switched ON by a gate signal, but even after the gate signal is de-asserted (removed), the thyristor remains in the ON-state until any turn-off condition occurs (which can be the application of a reverse voltage to the terminals, or when the current flowing through (forward current) falls below a certain threshold value known as the "holding current"). Thus, a thyristor behaves like a normal semiconductor diode after it is turned on or "fired".

The GTO can be turned on by a gate signal, and can also be turned off by a gate signal of negative polarity.

Turn on is accomplished by a "positive current" pulse between the gate and cathode terminals. As the gate-cathode behaves like PN junction, there will be some relatively small voltage between the terminals. The turn on phenomenon in GTO is however, not as reliable as an SCR (thyristor) and small positive gate current must be maintained even after turn on to improve reliability.

Turn off is accomplished by a "negative voltage" pulse between the gate and cathode terminals. Some of the forward current (about one-third to one-fifth) is "stolen" and used to induce a cathode-gate voltage which in turn induces the forward current to fall and the GTO will switch off (transitioning to the 'blocking' state.)

GTO thyristors suffer from long switch off times, whereby after the forward current falls, there is a long tail time where residual current continues to flow until all remaining charge from the device is taken away. This restricts the maximum switching frequency to approx 1 kHz. It may be noted however, that the turn off time of a GTO is approximately ten times faster than that of a comparable SCR.

To assist with the turn-off process, GTO thyristors are usually constructed from a large number (hundreds or thousands) of small thyristor cells connected in parallel.