Rectification Notes

Rectification and power supply design notes
prepared by MR.Timotheus
In electronic circuits powered by the mains voltage, the input
alternating voltage must be converted into direct voltage with an
adequate degree of stabilization. The simplest way to rectify an
alternating voltage is to use a regular semiconductor diode, a
passive electronic component whose property is to allow the flow
of electric current in one direction and to block it in the other.
Half Wave Rectifier with Capacitor Filter
The main function of half wave rectifier is to change the AC (Alternating

Current) into DC (Direct Current). However, the acquired output DC is
not pure and it is an exciting DC. This DC is not constant and varies with
time. Whenever this changing DC is given to any type of electronic
device, then it may not function correctly, and that may get damaged.
Due to this reason, it will not be applicable in most of the applications.
• During each “positive” half cycle of the AC sine wave, the diode
is forward biased as the anode is positive with respect to the
cathode resulting in current flowing through the diode.
• During each “negative” half cycle of the AC sinusoidal input

waveform, the diode is reverse biased as the anode is negative
with respect to the cathode. Therefore, NO current flows through
the diode or circuit. Then in the negative half cycle of the supply,
no current flows in the load resistor as no voltage appears across
it so therefore, Vout = 0.
Half-wave Rectifier with Smoothing
Capacitor
• When rectification is used to provide a direct voltage (DC) power supply
from an alternating (AC) source, the amount of ripple voltage can be
further reduced by using larger value capacitors but there are limits
both on cost and size to the types of smoothing capacitors used.
• For a given capacitor value, a greater load current (smaller load
resistance) will discharge the capacitor more quickly and so increases
the ripple obtained.
• Then for single phase, half-wave rectifier circuit using a diode it is not
very practical to try and reduce the ripple voltage by capacitor
smoothing alone. In this instance it would be more practical to use “Full-
wave Rectification” instead.
• In practice, the half-wave rectifier is used most often in low-power
applications because of their major disadvantages being. there is no
output during the negative half cycle so half the power is wasted and
the output is pulsed DC resulting in excessive ripple.
• To overcome these disadvantages a number of Power Diode are
connected together to produce a Full Wave Rectifier
Full Wave Rectifier
• Power Diodes can be connected together to form a full wave
rectifier that convert AC voltage into pulsating DC voltage for
use in power supplies
• The full wave rectifier converts both halves of each waveform
cycle into pulsating DC signal using four rectification diodes. In the
previous power diodes tutorial we discussed ways of reducing the
ripple or voltage variations on a direct DC voltage by connecting
smoothing 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.
• 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.
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
The Negative Half-cycle
• During the negative half cycle of the supply, diodes D3 and D4 conduct
in series, but diodes D1 and D2 switch “OFF” as they are now reverse
biased. The current flowing through the load is the same direction as
before.
Full wave Rectifier With Smoothing
Capacitor
• We can improve the average DC output of the rectifier while at the
same time reducing the AC variation of the rectified output by using
smoothing capacitors to filter the output waveform. Smoothing or
reservoir capacitors connected in parallel with the load across the
output of the full wave bridge rectifier circuit increases the average
DC output level even higher as the capacitor acts like a storage device.
Full Wave Rectifier with Smoothing
Capacitor
Two-Diode Full Wave Rectifier/full wave
rectifiers with center tapped transformers
• The two-diode full wave rectifier is an electronic circuit which
converts the input AC current into a DC output current by using
center tapped transformer. The two-diode full wave rectifier circuit
was widely used in the days of thermionic valves or vacuum tubes
because it only required the use of two diodes as a rectifier circuit
using four valves would be large, the two diode version was much
more preferable. These could be encapsulated in one device, thereby
reducing cost and size. The basic full wave rectifier circuit using two
diodes and a centre tapped transformer
Working Principle of the Circuit
• The induced secondary voltage has the same frequency of the primary and
is split into Vin(1) and Vin(2) with the common center tapped connection.
Each diode conducts in turn when its anode terminal is positive with
respect to the transformer center point C producing an output during both
half-cycles. This 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. At positive half cycle, anode of D1 is positive
with respect to point C of a center tap, diode D1 conducts in the forward
direction as indicated by the arrows. At negative half cycle, anode of D2 is
positive with respect to point C, diode D2 conducts in the forward direction
and the current flowing through resistor R1 is in the same direction for
both half-cycles. As the output voltage across the load resistor R1 is the
phasor sum of the two waveforms combined, this type of full wave rectifier
circuit is also known as a “bi-phase” circuit.

Rectification Notes

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Rectification and power supply design notes

The main function of half wave rectifier is to change the AC (Alternating

• During each “negative” half cycle of the AC sinusoidal input

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