There are some advantages of TRIAC which are given below,
- The TRIAC need single fuse for protection.
- It can be triggered with positive or negative polarities of gate pulses.
- A safe breakdown in either direction is possible but for SCR protection should be given with parallel diode.
- It needs only a single heat sink of slightly larger size where as for SCR two heat sinks should be required of smaller size.
- When the voltage is reduced to zero the TRIAC turns OFF.
There are some disadvantages of TRIAC which are given below,
- It can be triggered in any direction so we need to be careful about triggering circuit.
- As compared to SCR (silicon controlled rectifier) it has low ratings.
- The TRIACs are not much reliable as compared to SCR.
- This is not suitable for DC applications.
- The dv/dt rating is very low as compared to SCR.
- It has a very high switching delay.
TRIAC