Looks like an obsolete device.
Thyristors are relatively good at turning ON but (except maybe for GTO thyristors) need to be turned off by the current turning off elsewhere. That is why a lamp dimmer output waveform can have a steep rising edge but the current turns off only when the AC input passes through zero.
I did not find this part at Digikey.
When I googled it I encountered the name Powerex. I found a Powerex website but that did not help either.
I think that designing with an obsolete device makes your life more difficult. I wonder whether your design might work better with an IGBT or maybe a Silicon Carbide FET. I think many electric cars use Silicon Carbide FETs.
Thanks,
IGBTs may be the best choice and is also an avenue I’m pursuing, especially for the reluctance coil gun I want to build (but that’s a different topic). I’ve heard of sic fets but am not sure if they’re affordable or available, or can handle as high of currents as an igbtb
As far as turning off the thyristor, the operating principle in this case I believe is that one would design the coil in such a way that the length of the pulse is determined by the ring down of the waveform, and just letting the capacitor fully discharge.
The question then is what effect does the thyristor have on the waveform.
Another thing I’m unsure of is whether (for an induction launcher) I can use the initial positive “hump” of the waveform to induce the eddy current that will accelerate the projectile (and allow me to use electrolytic caps with the negative voltage cut off) or if I need to use the full ring down wave form in its Ac format, at a given frequency, to induce the eddy current (which would mean I can’t use electrolytic capacitors, I think).
Based on my research nobody has a home built induction launcher so I’m sort of in uncharted territory. The good news is I have a good barrel and projectile with minimal air gap. I have a lot of scientific papers about these being built in labs but they don’t always go into detail about their switching circuits; in one case they used ignitrons!
Again I’m pretty ignorant and need to learn a lot here, and that’s part of why I’m looking into multiple options.