ST AN437 Application note

AN437

Application note

RC snubber circuit design for TRIACs

Introduction

When a TRIAC controls inductive loads, the mains voltage and the load current are not in
phase. To limit the slope of the reapplied voltage and ensure right TRIAC turn-off, designer
usually used a snubber circuit connected in parallel with the TRIAC. This circuit can also be
used to improve TRIAC immunity to fast transient voltages.

The subject of this paper is, first of all, to analyze the snubber circuit functions and to
propose a method for snubber circuit design in order to improve turn-off commutation.

Contents

1 Snubber circuit functions and drawback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.1 Turn-off improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.1.1 TRIAC turn-off reminder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.1.2 Snubber circuit benefit at TRIAC turn-off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.2 Overvoltage limitation at turn-off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1.3 Immunity to fast voltage transient improvement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

1.4 Turn-on stress due to snubber circuit discharge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2 How to design snubber circuit for turn-off improvement . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.1 Step response of an RLC series circuit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.2 RC snubber circuit design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2.2.1 Is the snubber circuit required? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2.2.2 Resistor and capacitor snubber circuit design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Appendix A RLC series circuit step response explanation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Revision history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

October 2007 Rev 2 1/18

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Snubber circuit functions and drawback AN437

1 Snubber circuit functions and drawback

1.1 Turn-off improvement

1.1.1 TRIAC turn-off reminder

When a TRIAC switches from on-state to off-state, the current passes through zero and the
supply voltage is reapplied instantaneously across the structure. In certain conditions, the
component is not able to block this voltage and then turns on spontaneously.

Indeed, a TRIAC can be compared to two Thyristors mounted in back-to-back and coupled
with a single control area. To trigger the two Thyristors, the control area overlaps the two
conduction areas.

During the conduction time, a certain quantity of charges is injected into the structure.
These charges disappear by recombination during the current decrease and by extraction
after the turn-off with the reverse recovery current (refer to Figure 1). Nonetheless, an
excess of charge remains, particularly in the neighboring regions of the gate, which can
induce the triggering of the other conduction area when the mains voltage is reapplied
across the TRIAC (refer to Figure 2).

Figure 1. TRIAC turn-off on inductive

load - suitable turn-off

V

Mains

(100 V/div)

IT(10 mA/div)

VT(100 V/div)

Recovery current

Figure 2. TRIAC turn-off on inductive

load - spurious triggering

dV/dt

OFF

VT(50 V/div)

IT(10 mA/div)

dI/dt

OFF

A spurious triggering depends on:

● The slope of the decreasing current, called the turn-off dI/dt or dI/dt

. This parameter

OFF

determines the quantity of charges which remains, when the current drops to zero, and
which could be injected in the gate area or in the opposite Thyristor.

● The slope of the reapplied voltage, called the turn-off dV/dt or dV/dt

. This parameter

OFF

defines the capacitive current which could be injected through the gate.

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AN437 Snubber circuit functions and drawback

1.1.2 Snubber circuit benefit at TRIAC turn-off

The TRIAC turn-off behavior is characterized by the datasheet curve between the critical
rate of decrease of commutating on-state current ((dI/dt)c) and the critical rate of rise of
commutation off-state voltage ((dV/dt)c) (refer to Figure 3). These parameters are specified
for the maximum operating junction temperature (worst case).

In practice, the current waveform, and thus the slope of the decreasing current, is imposed
by the load. The user can then only limit the slope of the reapplied voltage. Indeed, by
adding an snubber circuit across the TRIAC, the circuit time response is increased and thus,
dV/dt

Figure 3. (dI/dt)c versus (dV/dt)c curve for Z01 standard TRIACs and snubber

is decreased (refer to Figure 3).

OFF

circuit impact

Load

I

C

V

Mains

V

R

T

T

Safe area

Operating point

with RC snubber

Area of spurious

firing at

commutation

Operating point

An RC snubber circuit must be used when there is a risk of TRIAC spurious triggering, i.e.
when the dI/dt

OFF

-dV/dt

couple, measured in the application, is higher than the TRIAC

OFF

datasheet values, (dI/dt)c at a given (dV/dt)c.

Figure 4 shows the turn-off behavior of a Z0103 standard TRIAC which controls a 26 W

drain pump. Without snubber circuit and for the maximum junction temperature (110° C), a
spurious triggering appears at turn-off. Indeed, the measured (dI/dt)

and (dV/dt)

OFF

OFF

values, equal respectively to 0.13 A/ms and 10 V/µs, are higher than the guarantee (dI/dt)c ­(dV/dt)c point (only 7 V/µs @ 0.13 A/ms, see Figure 3).

Thanks to an RC snubber circuit (10 nF and 2.7 kΩ), the slope of the reapplied voltage can
be limited to 1.5 V/µs and thus spurious triggering at turn-off can be avoided (see Figure 3
and Figure 4).

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Snubber circuit functions and drawback AN437

Figure 4. Z0103 TRIAC turn-off on inductive load without and with snubber circuit

(C = 10 nF and R = 2.7 kΩ)

:dV/dt

Without

IT(50 mA/div)

VT(100 V/div)

snubber

With

OFF

snubber

The snubber circuit design, detailed in Section 2: How to design snubber circuit for turn-off

improvement, is a trade-off between the maximum peak off-state voltage under pulse

conditions (V

DSM

/ V

), the critical slope of reapplied voltage ((dV/dt)c) and the turn-on

RSM

stress (dI/dt). When low load inductances are controlled or, low damping factor or low slope
of reapplied voltage are considered, the snubber circuit design can lead to choose a low
snubber resistance value. To reduce the snubber capacitance discharge at turn-on, the
resistance value is limited to a minimum value (refer to Section 1.4).

1.2 Overvoltage limitation at turn-off

When a TRIAC controls low root-mean-square currents inductive loads, an overvoltage
could occur when the current reaches the holding current (I

If the maximum value of the overvoltage (V
under pulse conditions (V

DSM

/ V

), the TRIAC may conduct without any gate current or

RSM

may be even damaged. The protections against overvoltage at turn-off are:

● A clamping strategy - use a varistor or an ACSTM / ACST (refer to AN1172 about

protected AC Switch™).

● A damping strategy - a snubber circuit. An RC snubber circuit limits the slope of the

voltage rise and could maintain the overvoltage at a lower value than the maximum
allowed value.

Figure 5. Overvoltage at TRIAC turn-off with and without snubber circuit

(C = 10 nF and R = 2.7 kΩ)

IT(20 mA/div)

I

H

) exceeds the maximum peak off-state voltage

M

VM= 660 V

Without snubber

VM= 140 V

With snubber

) (refer to Figure 5).

H

VT(100 V/div)

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AN437 Snubber circuit functions and drawback

1.3 Immunity to fast voltage transient improvement

Electrical noise may appear on the mains and generates across the TRIAC fast voltage
variations, as described in IEC 61000-4-4 standard.

Fast voltage variations can create a gate current (I

), due to the junction capacitance

G

between A2 and the gate, and could trigger the TRIAC. The maximum rate of rise of off­state voltage that a TRIAC is able to withstand without turning on is called the static dV/dt. A
spurious triggering due to static dV/dt is not dangerous for a component. The aim of the
snubber circuit is to reduce the static dV/dt at a lower level than the dV/dt specified in the
datasheet to avoid spurious triggering.

An RC snubber circuit improves the TRIAC immunity against fast voltage transients. For
example, regarding to the standard IEC 61000-4-4, a Z0109 standard TRIAC has a typical
immunity level of about 0.7 kV, without any snubber circuit. With a snubber circuit (1 nF and
47 Ω), the Z0109 immunity level can reach 4.0 kV.

Designers must manage the following trade-off to choose the suitable RC snubber circuit:

● Reduce dV/dt rates: the snubber capacitance must be high and the snubber resistance

must be low;

● Reduce dI/dt rate at turn-on (refer to Section 1.4): the snubber capacitance must be low

and the snubber resistance must be high.

1.4 Turn-on stress due to snubber circuit discharge

The snubber circuit design can lead to low resistance value. However, the snubber resistor
reduces the rate of current rise at turn-on (dI/dt
dI/dt

than the dI/dt specified in the datasheet may damage the TRIAC.

ON

The rate of current rise is directly proportional to the initial capacitance voltage and inversely
proportional to the series inductances of the board and the snubber resistor. The rate of
current rise depends also on the turn-on speed of the TRIAC, the triggering quadrants and
the gate current amplitude. So, there is no simple way to predict the rate of current rise.

) during the capacitor discharge. An higher

ON

Usually, the inductance of the circuit layout is very low, in the range of few nH. Indeed, to
optimize the snubber circuit efficiency, the snubber circuit must be located very close to the
TRIAC (tracks length lower than 2 cm).

From datasheet specifications, there are three ranges of maximum dI/dt:

● dI/dt = 20 A/µs: for low current rating of TRIACs (0.8 A and 1 A).

● dI/dt = 50 A/µs: for the other TRIACs (4 A up to 40 A).

● dI/dt = 100 A/µs: for some ACSTs (6 A up to 12 A).

To keep the dI/dt

below 50 A/µs for TRIACs and below 100 A/µs for ACSTs, the snubber

ON

resistance must be typically higher than 47 Ω (refer to Figure 6). For a 20 A/µs maximum
dI/dt, the minimum resistance value is about 620 Ω. Therefore, depending on the component
used, some tests should be performed to define accurately the minimum resistance value.

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Snubber circuit functions and drawback AN437

Figure 6. Typical snubber circuit discharge (C = 10 nF and R = 47 Ω) with

BTA/BTB16 TRIAC at peak mains voltage (quadrant 3, I

IT(1 A/div)

dI/dtON=50A/µs

I

Max.

VT(100 V/div)

V

= 320 V

Max.

= 2 x IGT)

G

6/18