Patent ID: 7388765

Claim:
A method for controlling phase-specific thyristors of a half-controlled network bridge, comprising identifying a thyristor to be controlled on the basis of the magnitude of phase voltage; controlling the thyristor by switching on the voltage in its gate current circuit to produce gate current, the thyristor control comprising the steps of: controlling the gate current through an inductive component of the gate current circuit to the thyristor gate; determining the magnitude of the gate current, and alternately switching the voltage off from the gate current circuit, when the gate current is higher than a predetermined limit, and switching the voltage on in the gate current circuit, when the gate current is lower than a predetermined limit, wherein each thyristor is controlled by supplying voltage to each thyristor gate from a voltage source common to all the gate current circuits and wherein the magnitude of the gate current of each thyristor is determined at the potential of the gate conductor.