GTO is from the thyristor family, with the added capability of turn off at the gate.
When forward biased, GTO can be turned on by injecting a positive current pulse into the gate.
GTO can be turned off by withdrawing a current pulse from the gate.
GTO is a current-controlled switch. A high negative gate current pulse of up to 1/3 of the anode current is required to turn off the GTO. This implies that a large amount of power is required from the drive circuit to turn off the device, and is considered a serious disadvantage for GTO.
GTO is capable of withstanding reverse voltages.
Fig. 7-9 shows the symbol for a GTO and the i-v characteristic of GTO.
