
Chopper control circuits 267
12.6 Chopper control circuits
The basic control circuit for a chopper consists of a mechanism for turning
on the main switching semiconductor at the start of a cycle and of turning
off the device when the cycle is to be terminated. If this main switch is a
thyristor it can be commutated by firing an auxiliary thyristor. Usually
there are two main applications for choppers, to provide a stabilised power
supply and to control the speed of a d.c. motor by varying the voltage
across it. Both these applications require some form of voltage sensing, in
order to keep the load voltage constant under varying current or suppl ...