{"id":477233,"date":"2025-12-29T08:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T08:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/477233\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T08:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T08:58:09","slug":"retro-semiconductors-the-silicon-controlled-rectifier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/477233\/","title":{"rendered":"Retro Semiconductors: The Silicon Controlled Rectifier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over on YouTube [Lockdown Electronics] reviews an old bit of kit known as the Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR)<\/a>. Invented in the 1950s the SCR<\/a> is a type of thyristor<\/a> and they were popular back in the 1970s. They are often replaced these days by the TRIAC<\/a> and the MOSFET<\/a> but you might still find some old schematics that call for them and you can still buy them.<\/p>\n

The SCR is a three terminal electronic switch which latches on. You apply a signal at the gate which allows the other two pins, the anode and cathode, to conduct; and they continue to do so until power is removed. The silicon inside the device is comprised of three semiconductor junctions, as: PNPN. The P on the left is the anode, the N on the right is the cathode, and the P in the right middle is the gate.<\/p>\n

In the video [Lockdown Electronics] runs us through how to use them and compares them with a TRIAC. Unfortunately the lighting is a bit off for the demo of the SCR with AC power. To finish the video [Lockdown Electronics] wraps up with a windshield wiper control circuit from back in 1977 which is based around SCR technology. If you\u2019d like to learn more about the SCR technology we have covered the basics<\/a>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Over on YouTube [Lockdown Electronics] reviews an old bit of kit known as the Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR).…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":477234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[158,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-477233","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-technology","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115802033642035019","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}