snubber circuit is basically series connected resistor and capacitor connected across the thyristor...

snubber circuit is required inorder to supress the rate of rise of forward voltage i.e., dv/dt across the thyristor.. otherwise the thyristor gets damaged. the capacitor across the thyristor terminals will set up an appropriate current i=C(dv/dt) in the capacitor.. the inductance in the circuit will limit the magnitude of the current to the capacitor and hence limits dv/dt and also limits the di/dt when the thyristor is turned on... Snubber circuits are used for semiconductor switching devices such as transistors, SCRs, etc.

When a switching device changes its state from ON-state to OFF-state, the impedandce of the device abruptly jumps to a very high level, blocking the current. But the current still tends to keep flowing through the switch, which induces a high voltage across the switch. The faster the current decreases, the higher the induced voltage becomes. It may reach to sufficiently high level to destroy the switch. If the switch is unable to withstand the high induced voltage, it will be destroyed, and can no more block the current as an OFF-state switch. To avoid this, an auxiliary network is connected across the switch that prevents the induced voltage from going too high. The network is called a snubber. Conversely, when a switching device changes its state from OFF-state to ON-state, the impedance of the device abruptly goes down to nearly zero, allowing current to flow freely. The problem in this case is that the current does not start to flow uniformly through the switch. This is because the switch does not recover its conductivity over the whole its cross-sectional area simultaneously. Some part of the area may be first open, and the current flow is concentrated to this relatively small portion of the switch, which may cause overheating and eventually failure. Thus some semiconductor switches should be protected from too fast increase of current. This is another function of a snubber. In view of above discussion, the snubber circuit is someting like a "bumper." It alleviates rise of voltage when the switch is turning OFF, and alleviates rise of current when the switch is turning ON, to a safe level.

Design of Snubber Circuits for Thyristor Protection

A snubber circuit consists of a series combination of resistance R s and capacitance Cs in parallel with the thyristor as shown in Fig. 4.25. Strictly speaking, a capacitor Cs in parallel with the device is sufficient to prevent unwanted dv/dt triggering of the SCR. When switch S is closed, a sudden voltage appears across the circuit. Capacitor Cs behaves like a short circuit, therefore voltage across SCR is zero. With the passage of time, voltage across Cs builds up at a slow rate such that dv/dt across Cs and therefore across SCR is less than the specified maximum dv/dt rating of the device. Here the question arises that if C s is enough to prevent accidental turn-on of the device by dv/dt, what is the need of putting Rs in series with Cs ? The answer to this is as under. Before SCR is fired by gate pulse, Cs charges to full voltage Vs. When the SCR is turned on, capacitor discharges through the SCR and sends a current equal to Vs / (resistance of local path formed by Cs and SCR). As this resistance is quite low, the turn-on di/dt will tend to be excessive and as a result, SCR may be destroyed. In order to limit the magnitude of discharge current, a resistance R s is inserted in series with Cs as shown in Fig. 4.25. Now when SCR is turned on, initial discharge current Vs/Rs is relatively small and turn-on di/dt is reduced.

In actual practice ; Rs, Cs and the load circuit parameters should be such that dv/dt across C s during its charging is less than the specified dv/dt rating of the SCR and discharge current at the turn-on of SCR is within reasonable limits. Normally, Rs Cs and load circuit parameters form an underdamped circuit so that dv/dt is limited to acceptable values. The design of snubber circuit parameters is quite complex.. In practice, designed snubber parameters are adjusted up or down in the final assembled power circuit so as to obtain a satisfactory performance of the power electronics system.