Several different technologies and designs are available among solid-state switches today. The major families are the standard Triacs (triode for alternating current), the snubberless Triacs, and the ...

For switching high-powered loads from a microcontroller, or for switching AC loads in general, most of us will reach into the parts bin and pull out a generic relay of some sort. Relays are ...

Fig 1. This zero-crossing detector circuit generates the control pulses needed to turn on triacs that require negative pulses for switching. Fig 2. Designers can use ...