This base design is supplemented by a snubber circuit consisting of a few passive components.

Substantial snubber circuits are added around the device to limit the rise of voltage at turn off.

All models in the range are fitted with a snubber circuit, offering protection against unwelcome voltage spikes.

Snubber circuits usually incorporate film capacitors, mostly polypropylene film caps.

These devices are made specifically for improved commutation and can often control reactive loads without the use of a snubber circuit.

In this case a snubber circuit (a capacitor and resistor in series) across the contacts may absorb the surge.

Snubber circuits are also used to prevent premature triggering, caused for example by voltage spikes in the mains supply.

Reseting the snubber circuit usually places a minimum on time requirement on GTO based circuits.

Ceramic disc capacitors are usually used in snubber circuits for low voltage motors for their low inductance and low cost.

Furthermore, because the snubber circuit functions, in principle, without losses, the conversion efficiency of the inverter remains high even for high values of the switching frequency.

Switching devices susceptible to arcing are normally designed to contain and extinguish an arc, and snubber circuits can supply a path for transient currents, preventing arcing.

Because the wax motor is a resistive load rather than an inductive load, wax motors controlled by TRIACs do not require snubber circuits.

Unwanted turn-ons can be avoided by using a snubber circuit (usually of the resistor/capacitor or resistor/capacitor/inductor type) between MT1 and MT2.

The most popular simple snubber circuit consists out of a film capacitor and a resistor in series, connected in parallel with a semiconductor component to suppress or damp undesirable voltage spikes.

This is prevented by connecting a resistor-capacitor (RC) snubber circuit between the anode and cathode terminals in order to limit the dV/dt (i.e., rate of voltage change over time).

Unlike the insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), the GTO thyristor requires external devices ("snubber circuits") to shape the turn on and turn off currents to prevent device destruction.