Hi all;
I'm doin a quick research about TRIAC.
Just need a help about it i did search but couldnt find anyting usefull.


=> What is the basic behaviour of TRIAC?
=> Any application using TRIAC?

I appreciate ur help

A triac is a semiconductor device used for AC power switching and phase control applications. Essentially, it acts like 2 SCRs (Silicon Controlled Rectifiers) connected in inverse parallel.

Used as a solid state replacement for a relay in lower power applications. Probably the most common place an electrician would find one is the incandescent lamp dimmer, where a triac is used as a phase controlled switch, to vary the effective voltage applied to the lamp.

Just to expand upon that description, the SCR or thyristor is the solid-state equivalent of the old thyratron tube.

The SCR is similar to a diode in some respects, but with the addition of a gate terminal. It will not conduct in the forward direction until a trigger pulse is applied to the gate. Once that pulse has been applied, the SCR will continue to conduct even after the trigger signal has been removed. Conduction ceases when the forward current drops below a cerain threshold, and after that you need to apply another trigger pulse before it will conduct again.

The triac is a multi-layer device which basically allows conduction in both directions after the trigger pulse is applied. As NJ said, the lamp dimmer is a good example.

In this application, the dimmer typically adjusts the phase angle of an RC circuit in the control. At high settings, the trigger pulse comes at the start of each half-cycle of AC. As the control is turned toward dim, the phase angle of the RC circuit causes the trigger pulse to arrive later in the half-cycle, until at the lowest setting you get only a tiny pulse at the end of each half-cycle.

As with the thyristor, the triac stops conducting when the current drops below a certain level, which on AC of course means that it will drop out at (or very near to) the zero-crossing point every half-cycle and only start conducting again when it is next re-triggered.

The triac is often accompanied by another bi-directional device called a diac. This is similar to two diodes wired parallel and back-to-back. It's main purpose is to only allow the trigger pulses through once they exceed a certain value, the reason being that the typical triac is more sensitive to pulses of one polarity than the other.

The inclusion of the diac in a dimmer application insures that the period of the positive half-cycle conduction is the same as that of the negative.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 06-15-2004).]

Thanks alot both of you
your help is very much appreciated

And occasionally, you will find a device that combines both a triac and a diac in one package. This is called a "quadrac".

You'll find Triacs in gas pumps, they are used to turn on relays for submerged pumps. From my experience, if you cross phase them(short 220 across them) they aren't very tough and easily get projected from the circuit board ..

In my application, it pays to have a wiggy to use in diagnosis as the triacs pass voltage even when not active. A digital meter can mess you up if not familar with this.

Another common application is in many modern microwave ovens. Triacs are often used to switch power to the magnetron power supply, and to the heating elements for those units which include them.

Flashing disco lights is another use.