Comparision between thyratrons and thyristors

 Compre thyratrons and thyristors

A thyristor is a current controlled device, while the thyratron is a voltage controlled device.This results in different design of gate-control circuits for them.

Before the discovery of thyristors, thyratrons were used for industrial control, but now they have been replaced by the thyristor because of the following drawbacks of thyratrons.

1. Thyratron is less reliable and bulkier than thyristor and has much larger internal losses and much smaller life than those of a thyristor.

2. Thyratron needs a large anode to cathode voltage and a separate filament supply where as the thyristor needs only one main supply and a control signal.

3. A thyristor has much smaller turn-on and turn-off times in comparison to those of a thyratron.

4. A thyristor can operate over a wide range of frequencies where as thyratron is not suitable for frequencies beyond 1KHz.