A model for simulating the electrical behavior of a thyristor includes a model of an NPN bipolar transistor whose emitter forms the cathode of the thyristor and the base forms a low-side control terminal of the thyristor, and a model of a PNP bipolar transistor whose emitter forms the anode of the thyristor and the base forms a high-side control terminal of the thyristor, the collector of the PNP transistor being connected to the low-side control terminal and the collector of the NPN transistor being connected to the high-side control terminal. The transistor models are present a small signal behavior over the entire range of anode currents of the thyristor, whereby the transistor models exhibit a gain drop when the anode current exits the small signal range.