**www.allaboutcircuits.

com/textbook/semiconductors/chpt-3/rectifier-circuits/

Rectifier Circuits
Now we come to the most popular application of
the diode: rectification. Simply defined, rectification
is the conversion of alternating current (AC) to
direct current (DC). This involves a device that
only allows one-way flow of electrons. As we have
seen, this is exactly what a semiconductor diode
does. The simplest kind of rectifier circuit is
the half-wave rectifier. It only allows one half of an
AC waveform to pass through to the load.
(Figurebelow)

Half-wave rectifier circuit.

For most power applications, half-wave

rectification is insufficient for the task. The
harmonic content of the rectifiers output waveform
is very large and consequently difficult to filter.
Furthermore, the AC power source only supplies
power to the load one half every full cycle,
meaning that half of its capacity is unused. Halfwave rectification is, however, a very simple way to
reduce power to a resistive load. Some twoposition lamp dimmer switches apply full AC power
to the lamp filament for full brightness and then
half-wave rectify it for a lesser light output.
(Figure below)

Half-wave rectifier application: Two level lamp

dimmer.

In the Dim switch position, the incandescent

lamp receives approximately one-half the power it
would normally receive operating on full-wave AC.
Because the half-wave rectified power pulses far
more rapidly than the filament has time to heat up
and cool down, the lamp does not blink. Instead,
its filament merely operates at a lesser
temperature than normal, providing less light
output. This principle of pulsing power rapidly to
a slow-responding load device to control the
electrical power sent to it is common in the world
of industrial electronics. Since the controlling
device (the diode, in this case) is either fully
conducting or fully nonconducting at any given
time, it dissipates little heat energy while
controlling load power, making this method of
power control very energy-efficient. This circuit is
perhaps the crudest possible method of pulsing
power to a load, but it suffices as a proof-ofconcept application.

If we need to rectify AC power to obtain the full use

of both half-cycles of the sine wave, a different
rectifier circuit configuration must be used. Such a
circuit is called a full-wave rectifier. One kind of
full-wave rectifier, called the center-tap design,
uses a transformer with a center-tapped
secondary winding and two diodes, as in
Figure below.

Full-wave rectifier, center-tapped design.

This circuits operation is easily understood one

half-cycle at a time. Consider the first half-cycle,
when the source voltage polarity is positive (+) on
top and negative (-) on bottom. At this time, only
the top diode is conducting; the bottom diode is
blocking current, and the load sees the first half
of the sine wave, positive on top and negative on
bottom. Only the top half of the transformers
secondary winding carries current during this halfcycle as in Figure below.

Full-wave center-tap rectifier: Top half of

secondary winding conducts during positive halfcycle of input, delivering positive half-cycle to
load..

During the next half-cycle, the AC polarity

reverses. Now, the other diode and the other half
of the transformers secondary winding carry
current while the portions of the circuit formerly
carrying current during the last half-cycle sit idle.
The load still sees half of a sine wave, of the
same polarity as before: positive on top and
negative on bottom. (Figure below)

Full-wave center-tap rectifier: During negative input

half-cycle, bottom half of secondary winding
conducts, delivering a positive half-cycle to the
load.

One disadvantage of this full-wave rectifier design

is the necessity of a transformer with a centertapped secondary winding. If the circuit in question
is one of high power, the size and expense of a
suitable transformer is significant. Consequently,
the center-tap rectifier design is only seen in lowpower applications.
The full-wave center-tapped rectifier polarity at the
load may be reversed by changing the direction of
the diodes. Furthermore, the reversed diodes can
be paralleled with an existing positive-output
rectifier. The result is dual-polarity full-wave centertapped rectifier in Figure below. Note that the
connectivity of the diodes themselves is the same
configuration as a bridge.

Dual polarity full-wave center tap rectifier

Another, more popular full-wave rectifier design

exists, and it is built around a four-diode bridge
configuration. For obvious reasons, this design is
called a full-wave bridge. (Figure below)

Full-wave bridge rectifier.

Current directions for the full-wave bridge rectifier

circuit are as shown in Figure below for positive
half-cycle and
Figure below for negative half-cycles of the AC
source waveform. Note that regardless of the
polarity of the input, the current flows in the same
direction through the load. That is, the negative
half-cycle of source is a positive half-cycle at the
load. The current flow is through two diodes in
series for both polarities. Thus, two diode drops of
the source voltage are lost (0.72=1.4 V for Si) in
the diodes. This is a disadvantage compared with
a full-wave center-tap design. This disadvantage is
only a problem in very low voltage power supplies.

Full-wave bridge rectifier: Electron flow for positive

half-cycles.

Full-wave bridge rectifier: Electron flow for

negative half=cycles.
Remembering the proper layout of diodes in a fullwave bridge rectifier circuit can often be frustrating
to the new student of electronics. Ive found that
an alternative representation of this circuit is easier

both to remember and to comprehend. Its the

exact same circuit, except all diodes are drawn in
a horizontal attitude, all pointing the same
direction. (Figure below)

Alternative layout style for Full-wave bridge

rectifier.

One advantage of remembering this layout for a

bridge rectifier circuit is that it expands easily into
a polyphase version in Figure below.

Three-phase full-wave bridge rectifier circuit.

Each three-phase line connects between a pair of
diodes: one to route power to the positive (+) side
of the load, and the other to route power to the
negative (-) side of the load. Polyphase systems
with more than three phases are easily
accommodated into a bridge rectifier scheme.
Take for instance the six-phase bridge rectifier
circuit in Figure below.

Six-phase full-wave bridge rectifier circuit.

When polyphase AC is rectified, the phase-shifted
pulses overlap each other to produce a DC output
that is much smoother (has less AC content)
than that produced by the rectification of singlephase AC. This is a decided advantage in highpower rectifier circuits, where the sheer physical
size of filtering components would be prohibitive
but low-noise DC power must be obtained. The
diagram in Figure below shows the full-wave
rectification of three-phase AC.

Three-phase AC and 3-phase full-wave rectifier

output.

In any case of rectificationsingle-phase or

polyphasethe amount of AC voltage mixed with
the rectifiers DC output is called ripple voltage. In
most cases, since pure DC is the desired goal,
ripple voltage is undesirable. If the power levels
are not too great, filtering networks may be
employed to reduce the amount of ripple in the
output voltage.

Sometimes, the method of rectification is referred

to by counting the number of DC pulses output
for every 360o of electrical rotation. A singlephase, half-wave rectifier circuit, then, would be
called a 1-pulse rectifier, because it produces a
single pulse during the time of one complete cycle
(360o) of the AC waveform. A single-phase, fullwave rectifier (regardless of design, center-tap or
bridge) would be called a 2-pulse rectifier, because
it outputs two pulses of DC during one AC cycles
worth of time. A three-phase full-wave rectifier
would be called a 6-pulse unit.
Modern electrical engineering convention further
describes the function of a rectifier circuit by using
a three-field notation of phases, ways, and number
of pulses. A single-phase, half-wave rectifier circuit
is given the somewhat cryptic designation of
1Ph1W1P (1 phase, 1 way, 1 pulse), meaning that
the AC supply voltage is single-phase, that current

on each phase of the AC supply lines moves in

only one direction (way), and that there is a single
pulse of DC produced for every 360o of electrical
rotation. A single-phase, full-wave, center-tap
rectifier circuit would be designated as 1Ph1W2P
in this notational system: 1 phase, 1 way or
direction of current in each winding half, and 2
pulses or output voltage per cycle. A single-phase,
full-wave, bridge rectifier would be designated as
1Ph2W2P: the same as for the center-tap design,
except current can go both ways through the AC
lines instead of just one way. The three-phase
bridge rectifier circuit shown earlier would be
called a 3Ph2W6P rectifier.
Is it possible to obtain more pulses than twice the
number of phases in a rectifier circuit? The answer
to this question is yes: especially in polyphase
circuits. Through the creative use of transformers,
sets of full-wave rectifiers may be paralleled in

such a way that more than six pulses of DC are

produced for three phases of AC. A 30o phase shift
is introduced from primary to secondary of a threephase transformer when the winding
configurations are not of the same type. In other
words, a transformer connected either Y- or -Y
will exhibit this 30o phase shift, while a transformer
connected Y-Y or - will not. This phenomenon
may be exploited by having one transformer
connected Y-Y feed a bridge rectifier, and have
another transformer connected Y- feed a second
bridge rectifier, then parallel the DC outputs of
both rectifiers. (Figure below) Since the ripple
voltage waveforms of the two rectifiers outputs are
phase-shifted 30o from one another, their
superposition results in less ripple than either
rectifier output considered separately: 12 pulses
per 360o instead of just six:

Polyphase rectifier circuit: 3-phase 2-way 12-pulse

(3Ph2W12P)
REVIEW:
Rectification is the conversion of alternating
current (AC) to direct current (DC).
A half-wave rectifier is a circuit that allows only
one half-cycle of the AC voltage waveform to be
applied to the load, resulting in one non-

alternating polarity across it. The resulting DC

delivered to the load pulsates significantly.
A full-wave rectifier is a circuit that converts both
half-cycles of the AC voltage waveform to an
unbroken series of voltage pulses of the same
polarity. The resulting DC delivered to the load
doesnt pulsate as much.
Polyphase alternating current, when rectified,
gives a much smoother DC waveform
(less ripple voltage) than rectified single-phase
AC.
**http://www.futureelectronics.com/en/diodes/standard-rectifiers.aspx
What is a Standard Rectifier?
A rectifier diode lets electrical current flow in only one direction and is mainly used for power supply operation.
Rectifier diodes can handle higher current flow than regular diodes and are generally used in order to change
alternating current into direct current. They are designed as discrete components or as integrated circuits and are
usually fabricated from silicon and characterized by a fairly large P-N-junction surface. This results in high
capacitance under reverse-bias conditions. In high-voltage supplies, two rectifier diodes or more may be connected
in series in order to increase the peak-inverse-voltage (PIV) rating of the combination.

Types of Standard Rectifiers

There are many different kinds of standard rectifiers and at Future Electronics we stock many of the most common
types categorized by maximum reverse current, maximum peak current, maximum reverse voltage, forward

voltage, packaging type and maximum average rectified current. The parametric filters on our website can help
refine your search results depending on the required specifications.
The most common sizes for maximum average rectified current are 1 A, 1.5 A, 3 A, 5 A and 6 A. We also carry
standard rectifiers with maximum average rectified current as high as 400 A. Forward voltage can range from 1.1
mV to 1.3 kV, with the most common standard rectifier semiconductor chips having a forward voltage of 1.1 V or
1.15 V.

Standard Rectifiers from Future Electronics

Future Electronics has a full selection of standard rectifiers from several chip manufacturers that can be used to
design a rectifier circuit or any other type of circuits that may require a standard rectifier. Simply choose from the
standard rectifier technical attributes below and your search results will quickly be narrowed to match your specific
standard rectifier application needs.
If you have a preferred brand, we deal with several manufacturers such as ON Semiconductor, Diodes Inc.,
Fairchild, Micro Commercial Comp or Vishay, among other chip manufacturers. You can easily refine your standard
rectifier product search results by clicking your preferred standard rectifier brand below from our list of
manufacturers.

Applications for Standard Rectifiers:

Standard rectifiers can be found regulating the power in computers and the electrical power in motor vehicles. They
can also be used in battery chargers for rechargeable batteries, computer power supplies and vehicle batteries.
Also, while rectifier diodes are often used for AC to DC conversion, diodes with rectifying characteristics are found
in other uses than in electronics. For example, a diode is used in the detector of radios in order to perform radio
demodulation.

Choosing the Right Standard Rectifier:

When you are looking for the right standard rectifiers, with the FutureElectronics.com parametric search, you can
filter the results by various attributes: by Maximum Average Rectified Current (120 mA, 1.5A, 3A, 5A, 6 A,),
Maximum Peak Current (600 mA, 30 A, 50 A, 100 A,) and Forward Voltage (1.1 mV to 1.3 kV) to name a few. You
will be able to find the right semiconductor chip from several manufacturers that can be used to design a standard
rectifier circuit or any other circuits requiring a standard rectifier.

Standard Rectifiers in Production Ready Packaging or R&D Quantities

Standard Rectifiers in Production Ready Packaging or R&D Quantities If the quantity of standard rectifiers required
is less than a full reel, we offer customers many of our programmable standard rectifier products in tube, tray or
individual quantities that will avoid unneeded surplus.
In addition, Future Electronics offers clients a unique bonded inventory program that is designed to eliminate
potential problems that may arise from an unpredictable supply of products containing raw metals and products
with erratic or long lead times. Talk with your nearest

Future Electronics branch and find out more

on how you and your company can avoid possible shortages.

**http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electronic/rectifiers.html

Rectifiers

Half-Wave Rectifier

Half-Wave Rectifier

**http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/diode/diode_6.html

The Full Wave Rectifier

In the previous Power Diodes tutorial we discussed ways of
reducing the ripple or voltage variations on a direct DC
voltage by connecting capacitors across the load resistance.
While

this

method

may

be

suitable

for

low

power

applications it is unsuitable to applications which need a

steady and smooth DC supply voltage. One method to
improve on this is to use every half-cycle of the input voltage
instead of every other half-cycle. The circuit which allows us
to do this is called a Full Wave Rectifier.
Like the half wave circuit, a Full Wave Rectifier Circuit produces
an output voltage or current which is purely DC or has some
specified DC component. Full wave rectifiers have some
fundamental advantages over their half wave rectifier
counterparts. The average (DC) output voltage is higher than for
half wave, the output of the full wave rectifier has much less ripple

than that of the half wave rectifier producing a smoother output

waveform.
In a Full Wave Rectifier circuit two diodes are now used, one for
each half of the cycle. A multiple winding transformer is used
whose secondary winding is split equally into two halves with a
common centre tapped connection, (C). This configuration results
in each diode conducting in turn when its anode terminal is
positive with respect to the transformer centre point C producing
an output during both half-cycles, twice that for the half wave
rectifier so it is 100% efficient as shown below.

Full Wave Rectifier Circuit

The full wave rectifier circuit consists of two power

diodes connected to a single load resistance (RL) with each diode
taking it in turn to supply current to the load. When point A of the
transformer is positive with respect to point C, diode D1 conducts
in the forward direction as indicated by the arrows.
When point B is positive (in the negative half of the cycle) with
respect to point C, diode D2 conducts in the forward direction and
the current flowing through resistor R is in the same direction for
both half-cycles. As the output voltage across the resistor R is the
phasor sum of the two waveforms combined, this type of full wave
rectifier circuit is also known as a bi-phase circuit.
As the spaces between each half-wave developed by each diode
is now being filled in by the other diode the average DC output
voltage across the load resistor is now double that of the single
half-wave rectifier circuit and is about 0.637Vmax of the peak
voltage, assuming no losses.

Where: VMAX is the maximum peak value in one half of the

secondary winding and VRMS is the rms value.
The peak voltage of the output waveform is the same as before
for the half-wave rectifier provided each half of the transformer
windings have the same rms voltage value. To obtain a different
DC voltage output different transformer ratios can be used. The
main disadvantage of this type of full wave rectifier circuit is that a

larger transformer for a given power output is required with two

separate but identical secondary windings making this type of full
wave rectifying circuit costly compared to the Full Wave Bridge
Rectifier circuit equivalent.

The Full Wave Bridge Rectifier

Another type of circuit that produces the same output waveform
as the full wave rectifier circuit above, is that of the Full Wave
Bridge Rectifier. This type of single phase rectifier uses four
individual rectifying diodes connected in a closed loop bridge
configuration to produce the desired output. The main advantage
of this bridge circuit is that it does not require a special centre
tapped transformer, thereby reducing its size and cost. The single
secondary winding is connected to one side of the diode bridge
network and the load to the other side as shown below.

The Diode Bridge Rectifier

The four diodes labelled D1 to D4 are arranged in series pairs

with only two diodes conducting current during each half cycle.
During
the
positive
half
cycle
of
the
supply,
diodes D1 and D2 conduct in series while diodes D3 and D4 are
reverse biased and the current flows through the load as shown
below.

The Positive Half-cycle

During
the
negative
half
cycle
of
the
supply,
diodes D3 and D4 conduct in series, but diodes D1 and D2switch
OFF as they are now reverse biased. The current flowing
through the load is the same direction as before.

The Negative Half-cycle

As the current flowing through the load is unidirectional, so the

voltage developed across the load is also unidirectional the same
as for the previous two diode full-wave rectifier, therefore the
average DC voltage across the load is 0.637Vmax.

Typical Bridge Rectifier

However in reality, during each half cycle the current flows
through two diodes instead of just one so the amplitude of the
output voltage is two voltage drops ( 2 x 0.7 = 1.4V ) less than the
input VMAX amplitude. The ripple frequency is now twice the supply

frequency (e.g. 100Hz for a 50Hz supply or 120Hz for a 60Hz

supply.)
Although we can use four individual power diodes to make a full
wave bridge rectifier, pre-made bridge rectifier components are
available off-the-shelf in a range of different voltage and current
sizes that can be soldered directly into a PCB circuit board or be
connected by spade connectors.
The image to the right shows a typical single phase bridge
rectifier with one corner cut off. This cut-off corner indicates that
the terminal nearest to the corner is the positive or +ve output
terminal or lead with the opposite (diagonal) lead being the
negative or -ve output lead. The other two connecting leads are
for the input alternating voltage from a transformer secondary
winding.

The Smoothing Capacitor

We saw in the previous section that the single phase half-wave
rectifier produces an output wave every half cycle and that it was
not practical to use this type of circuit to produce a steady DC
supply. The full-wave bridge rectifier however, gives us a greater
mean DC value (0.637 Vmax) with less superimposed ripple while
the output waveform is twice that of the frequency of the input
supply frequency. We can therefore increase its average DC
output level even higher by connecting a suitable smoothing
capacitor across the output of the bridge circuit as shown below.

Full-wave Rectifier with Smoothing Capacitor

The smoothing capacitor converts the full-wave rippled output of

the rectifier into a smooth DC output voltage. Generally for DC
power supply circuits the smoothing capacitor is an Aluminium
Electrolytic type that has a capacitance value of 100uF or more
with repeated DC voltage pulses from the rectifier charging up the
capacitor to peak voltage.
However, their are two important parameters to consider when
choosing a suitable smoothing capacitor and these are
its Working Voltage, which must be higher than the no-load output
value of the rectifier and its Capacitance Value, which determines
the amount of ripple that will appear superimposed on top of the
DC voltage.

Too low a capacitance value and the capacitor has little effect on
the output waveform. But if the smoothing capacitor is sufficiently
large enough (parallel capacitors can be used) and the load
current is not too large, the output voltage will be almost as
smooth as pure DC. As a general rule of thumb, we are looking to
have a ripple voltage of less than 100mV peak to peak.
The maximum ripple voltage present for a Full Wave
Rectifier circuit is not only determined by the value of the
smoothing capacitor but by the frequency and load current, and is
calculated as:

Bridge Rectifier Ripple Voltage

Where: I is the DC load current in amps, is the frequency of the

ripple or twice the input frequency in Hertz, and C is the
capacitance in Farads.
The main advantages of a full-wave bridge rectifier is that it has a
smaller AC ripple value for a given load and a smaller reservoir or
smoothing capacitor than an equivalent half-wave rectifier.
Therefore, the fundamental frequency of the ripple voltage is
twice that of the AC supply frequency (100Hz) where for the halfwave rectifier it is exactly equal to the supply frequency (50Hz).

The amount of ripple voltage that is superimposed on top of the

DC supply voltage by the diodes can be virtually eliminated by
adding a much improved -filter (pi-filter) to the output terminals
of the bridge rectifier. This type of low-pass filter consists of two
smoothing capacitors, usually of the same value and a choke or
inductance across them to introduce a high impedance path to the
alternating ripple component
Another more practical and cheaper alternative is to use an off the
shelf 3-terminal voltage regulator IC, such as a LM78xx (where
xx stands for the output voltage rating) for a positive output
voltage or its inverse equivalent the LM79xx for a negative output
voltage which can reduce the ripple by more than 70dB
(Datasheet) while delivering a constant output current of over 1
amp.
In the next tutorial about diodes, we will look at the Zener
Diode which takes advantage of its reverse breakdown voltage
characteristic to produce a constant and fixed output voltage
across itself.
**http://www.circuitstoday.com/half-wave-rectifiers

Half wave rectifiers

Half-Wave Rectifier Circuit Diagram

A simple Half Wave Rectifier is nothing more than a single
pn junction diode connected in series to the load resistor. If
you look at the above diagram, we are giving an alternating
current as input. Input voltage is given to a step down
transformer and the resulting reduced output of transformer
is given to the diode D and load resistor RL. The output
voltage is measured across load resistor RL.
As part of our Basic Electronics Tutorial series, we have
seen that rectification is the most important application of a
PN junction diode. The process of rectification is converting
alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC).

Half Wave Rectifier Operation

To understand the operation of a half wave rectifier perfectly,
you must know the theory partreally well. If you are new to
the concepts of pn junction and its characteristics, I

recommend you to read the half wave rectifier theory part

first.
The operation of a half wave rectifier is pretty simple. From
the theory part, you should know that a pn junction diode
conducts current only in 1 direction. In other words, a pn
junction diode conducts current only when it is forward
biased. The same principle is made use of in a half wave
rectifier to convert AC to DC. The input we give here is an
alternating current. This input voltage is stepped down using
a transformer. The reduced voltage is fed to the diode D
and load resistance RL. During the positive half cycles of the
input wave, the diode D will be forward biased and during
the negative half cycles of input wave, the diode D will be
reverse biased. We take the output across load resistor RL.
Since the diode passes current only during one half cycle of
the input wave, we get an output as shown in diagram. The
output is positive and significant during the positive half
cycles of input wave. At the same time output is zero or
insignificant during negative half cycles of input wave. This
is called half wave rectification.
Explaining Half Wave Rectification in academic words!

When a single rectifier diode unit is placed in series with the

load across an ac supply, it converts alternating voltage into

uni-directional pulsating voltage, using one half cycle of the

applied voltage, the other half cycle being suppressed
because it conducts only in one direction. Unless there is an
inductance or battery in the circuit, the current will be zero,
therefore, for half the time. This is called half-wave
rectification. As already discussed, diode is an electronic
device consisting of two elements known as cathode and
anode. Since in a diode electrons can flow in one direction
only i.e. from cathode to anode, the diode provides the
unilateral conduction necessary for rectification. This is true
for diodes of all types-vacuum, gas-filled, crystal or
semiconductor, metallic (copper oxide and selenium types)
diodes. Semiconductor diodes,because of their inherent
advantages are usually used as a rectifying device.
However, for very high voltages, vacuum diodes may be
employed.

Working of a Half wave rectifier

The half-wave rectifier circuit using a semiconductor diode
(D) with a load resistance R L but no smoothing filter is given
in figure. The diode is connected in series with the
secondary of the transformer and the load resistance
RL. The primary of the transformer is being connected to the
ac supply mains.

The ac voltage across the secondary winding changes

polarities after every half cycle of input wave. During the
positive half-cycles of the input ac voltage i.e. when upper
end of the secondary winding is positive w.r.t. its lower end,
the diode is forward biased and therefore conducts current.
If the forward resistance of the diode is assumed to be zero
(in practice, however, a small resistance exists) the input
voltage during the positive half-cycles is directly applied to
the load resistance RL, making its upper end positive w.r.t. its
lower end. The waveforms of the output current and output
voltage are of the same shape as that of the input ac
voltage.
During the negative half cycles of the input ac
voltage i.e. when the lower end of the secondary winding is
positive w.r.t. its upper end, the diode is reverse biased and
so does not conduct. Thus during the negative half cycles of
the input ac voltage, the current through and voltage across
the load remains zero. The reverse current, being very small
in magnitude, is neglected. Thus for the negative half cycles
no power is delivered to the load.
Thus the output voltage (VL) developed across load
resistance RL is a series of positive half cycles of alternating
voltage, with intervening very small constant negative

voltage levels, It is obvious from the figure that the output is

not a steady dc, but only a pulsating dc wave. To make the
output wave smooth and useful in a DC power supply, we
have to use a filter across the load. Since only half-cycles of
the input wave are used, it is called a half wave rectifier.

Half Wave Rectifier Theory

Rectification is an application of the pn junction diode. A half
wave rectifier is a device which makes use of key properties
of a pn junction diode. So to understand the underlying
theory behind a half wave rectifier, you need to understand
the pn junction and the characteristics of the pn junction
diode. We have developed two articles to help you
understand both of them.
1)Understanding the PN Junction This article will help
you to understand the pn junction and the underlying theory
behind using pn junction as a rectifier.
2) Characteristics of PN junction diode This article will
help you to understand the characteristics of a pn junction
diode with help of graphs. You can understand the behavior
of a diode across various voltage levels and how it
conducts.

Note:- There is an interesting story behind the invention

of PN junction diode. The story revolves around the
perseverance of a young scientist at Bell Laboratories in
USA, Mr. Russel Ohl. In the story you will learn how great
inventions happen and how some bright minds of the 1930s
like Walter Brattain (one among the 3 who invented
transistor) worked together to bring great inventions t our life

Power Supply Specifications of a rectifier

The most important characteristics which are required to be
specified for a power supply are the required output dc
voltage, the average and peak currents in the diode, the
peak inverse voltage (PIV) of diode, the regulation and the
ripple factor.

Advantages

and

Disadvantages

of

Half

wave

rectifier:
A half wave rectifier is rarely used in practice. It is never
preferred as the power supply of an audio circuit because of
the very high ripple factor. High ripple factor will result in
noises in input audio signal, which in turn will affect audio
quality.
Advantage of a half wave rectifier is only that its cheap,
simple and easy to construct. It is cheap because of the low

number of components involved. Simple because of the

straight forwardness in circuit design. Apart from this, a half
wave rectifier has more number of disadvantages than
advantages!

Disadvantages of Half wave rectifier

1. The output current in the load contains, in addition to dc
component, ac components of basic frequency equal to that
of the input voltage frequency. Ripple factor is high and an
elaborate filtering is, therefore, required to give steady dc
output.
2. The power output and, therefore, rectification efficiency is
quite low. This is due to the fact that power is delivered only
during one half cycle of the input alternating voltage.
3. Transformer utilization factor is low.
4. DC saturation of transformer core resulting in magnetizing
current and hysteresis losses and generation of harmonics.
The DC output available from a half-wave rectifier is not
satisfactory to make a general power supply. However it
can be used for some applications like battery charging.

Half Wave Rectifier with Capacitor

Filter
Output of half wave rectifier is not a constant DC voltage.
You can observe from the output diagram that its a pulsating
dc voltage with ac ripples. In real life applications, we need a
power supply with smooth wave forms. In other words, we
desire a DC power supply with constant output voltage. A
constant output voltage from the DC power supply is very
important as it directly impacts the reliability of the electronic
device we connect to the power supply.
We can make the output of half wave rectifier smooth by
using a filter (a capacitor filter or an inductor filter) across
the diode. In some cases an resistor-capacitor coupled filter
(RC) is also used. The circuit diagram below shows a half
wave rectifier with capacitor filter.

Half Wave Rectifier with Capacitor Filter Circuit

Diagram & Output Waveform
Half Wave Rectifier Analysis
The following parameters will be explained for the analysis
of Half Wave Rectifier:1.

Peak Inverse Voltage (PIV)

Peak Inverse Voltage (PIV) rating of a diode is important in

its design stages. It is the maximum voltage that the

rectifying diode has to withstand, during the reverse biased

period.
When the diode is reverse biased, during the negative half
cycle, there will be no current flow through the load resistor
RL. Hence, there will be no voltage drop through the load
resistance RL which causes the entire input voltage to
appear across the diode. Thus VSMAX, the peak secondary
voltage, appears across the diode. Therefore,
Peak Inverse Voltage (PIV) of half wave rectifier = VSMAX
2.

Average and Peak Currents in the diode

By assuming that the voltage across the transformer

secondary be sinusoidal of peak values VSMAX, instantaneous
value of the voltage given to the rectifier can be written as

Instantaneous value of voltage applied to Half Wave

Rectifier
Assuming that the diode has a forward resistance of RF
ohms and infinite reverse resistance value, the current
flowing through the output load resistance RL is

Current flowing through the diode

IMAX = VSMAX/(RF + RL)
3.

DC Output Current

The dc output current is given as

DC Output Current of Half Wave Rectifier

Substituting the value of IMAX for the equation IMAX = VSMAX/
(RF + RL), we have
Idc = VSMAX/ = VSMAX/ RL if RL >> RF
4.

DC Output Voltage

Dc value of voltage across the load is given by

Vdc = Idc RL = VSMAX/pi(RF + RL)X RL = VSMAX/{1+RF/R }
L

If RL >> RF, Vdc = VSMAX/pi

5.

Root Mean Square (RMS) Value of Current

RMS value of current flowing through the diode is given as

RMS value of current flowing through diode in half wave

rectifier
6.

Root Mean Square (RMS) Value of Output Voltage

RMS value of voltage across the load is given as

VLrms = Irms RL = VSMAX RL /2(RF + RL) = VSMAX/2{1+RF/R }
L

If RL >> RF, VLrms = VSMAX/2

7.

Rectification Efficiency

Rectification efficiency is defined as the ratio between the

output power to the ac input power.
Efficiency, = DC power delivered to the load/AC input
power from the transformer = Pdc/Pac
DC power delivered to the load, Pdc = I2dc RL = (Imax/pi)2 RL
AC power input to the transformer, Pac = Power dissipated in
diode junction + Power dissipated in load resistance R L

= I2rms RF + I2rms RL = {I2MAX/4}[ RF + RL]

So, Rectification Efficiency, = Pdc/Pac = {4/2}[ RL/ (RF + RL)] =
0.406/{1+ RF/R }
L

The maximum efficiency that can be obtained by the half

wave rectifier is 40.6%. This is obtained if RF is neglected.
8.

Ripple Factor

Ripple factor is in fact a measure of the remaining

alternating components in a filtered rectifier output. It is the
ratio of the effective value of the ac components of voltage
(or current) present in the output from the rectifier to the dc
component in output voltage (or current).
The effective value of the load current is given as
I2 =I2dc+I21+I22+I24 = I2dc +I2ac
Where, I1,I2, I4 and so onare the rms values of fundamental,
second, fourth and so on harmonics and I2acis the sum of the
squares if the rms values of the ac components.
So, ripple factor, = Iac/ Idc = I2 I2dc)/ Idc = {( Irms/ Idc2)-1} = Kf2
1)
Where Kf is the form factor of the input voltage. For half
wave rectifier, form factor is given as

Kf = Irms /Iavg = (Imax/2)/ (Imax/pi) = pi/2 = 1.57

So, ripple factor, = (1.572 1) = 1.21
9.

Regulation

The variation of the output voltage as a function of dc load

current is called regulation. Percentage regulation is given
as
% Regulation = {(Vno-load Vfull-load)/ Vfull-load}* 100
Fror an ideal power supply, the output voltage should be
independent of load current and the percentage regulation
should be equal to zero.
Uses of Half wave rectifier
Any rectifier is used to construct DC power supplies. The
practical application of any rectifier (be it half wave or full
wave) is to be used as a component in building DC power
supplies. A half wave rectifier is not special than a full wave
rectifier in any terms. In order to build an efficient & smooth
DC power supply, a full wave rectifier is always preferred.
However for applications in which a constant DC voltage is
not very essential, you can use power supplies with half
wave rectifier.