TEACHER’S CERTIFICATE:

This is to certify that Ms.Syeda Mehnaz Hasan has taken due care in
completing the project under my guidance and support. The contents are
correct according to the topics concerned. The project has been
thoroughly checked and it has been found devoid of any error. The
project on the topic . “FULL-WAVE RECTIFIER” is successfully completed
in all respects.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I have been successful in completing this project by the support and
guidance given by some people to me. First of all I would like to thank our
respected Physics teacher Mrs Sharmistha Ghosh for enlightening us in
different topics and supporting and guiding us in completing this project.
I owe my profound gratitude to our lab assistant Mr.Mohitosh Chatterjee
who took keen interest in our project work and guided us all along till the
completion of our project.
CONTENTS:-

1. INTRODUCTION
2. CIRCUIT DIAGRAM
3. FULL WAVE RECTIFIER
· HALF WAVE RECTIFICATION
· FULL WAVE RECTIFICATION
· RECTIFIER OUTPUT SMOOTHING
3. WORKING OF FULL WAVE RECTIFIER
4. GRAPH
5. MERITS AND DEMERITS OF FULL-WAVE RECTIFIER
6. APPLICATIONS:HOW RECTIFIER CIRCUIT WORKS IN
ELECTRONICS
7. CONCLUSION
8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION:
A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC),
which periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which flows
in only one direction. The process is known as rectification.
Rectifiers have many uses, but are often found serving as components of
DC power supplies and high-voltage direct current power transmission
systems. Rectification may serve in roles other than to generate direct
current for use as a source of power. As noted, detectors of radio signals
serve as rectifiers. In gas heating systems flame rectification is used to
detect presence of flame. The simple process of rectification produces a
type of DC characterized by pulsating voltages and currents (although still
unidirectional). Depending upon the type of end-use, this type of DC
current may then be further modified into the type of relatively constant
voltage DC characteristically produced by such sources as batteries
and solar cells.
CIRCUIT DIAGRAM
Full Wave Rectifier:-
Half-wave rectification:-
In half wave rectification of a single-phase supply, either the positive or
negative half of the AC wave is passed, while the other half is blocked.
Because only one half of the input waveform reaches the output, mean
voltage is lower. Half-wave rectification requires a single diode in a single-
phase supply, or three in a three-phase supply. Rectifiers yield a
unidirectional but pulsating direct current; half-wave rectifiers produce
far more ripple than full-wave rectifiers, and much more filtering is
needed to eliminate harmonics of the AC frequency from the output.

Full-wave rectification:-
A full-wave rectifier converts the whole of the input waveform to one of
constant polarity (positive or negative) at its output. Full-wave
rectification converts both polarities of the input waveform to DC (direct
current), and yields a higher mean output voltage. Two diodes and a
center tapped transformer, or four diodes in a bridge configuration and
any AC source (including a transformer without center tap), are needed.
Bridge rectifier: A full-wave rectifier using 4 diodes:-
For single-phase AC, if the transformer is center-tapped, then two diodes
back-to-back (cathode-to-cathode or anode-to-anode, depending upon
output polarity required) can form a full-wave rectifier. Twice as many
turns are required on the transformer secondary to obtain the same
output voltage than for a bridge rectifier, but the power rating is
unchanged.

Rectifier output smoothing:-

While half-wave and full-wave rectification can deliver unidirectional
current, neither produces a constant voltage. In order to produce steady
DC from a rectified AC supply, a smoothing circuit or filter is required. In
itsimplest form this can be just a reservoir capacitor or smoothing
capacitor, placed at the DC output of the rectifier. There will still be an
AC ripple voltage component at the power supply frequency for a half-
wave rectifier, twice that for full-wave, where the voltage is not
completely smoothed.

Sizing of the capacitor represents a trade-off. For a given load, a larger

capacitor will reduce ripple but will cost more and will create higher peak
currents in the transformer secondary and in the supply feeding it. The
peak current is set in principle by the rate of rise of the supply voltage on
the rising edge of the incoming sinewave, but in practice it is reduced by
the resistance of the transformer windings. In extreme cases where many
rectifiers are loaded onto a power distribution circuit, peak currents may
cause difficulty in maintaining a correctly shaped sinusoidal voltage on
the ac supply. To limit ripple to a specified value the required capacitor
size is proportional to the load current and inversely proportional to the
supply frequency and the number of output peaks of the rectifier per
input cycle. The load current and the supply frequency are generally
outside the control of the designer of the rectifier system but the number
of peaks per input cycle can be affected by the choice of rectifier design.
A half-wave rectifier will only give one peak per cycle and for this and
other reasons is only used in very small power supplies. A full wave
rectifier achieves two peaks per cycle, the best possible with a single-
phase input. For three-phase inputs a three-phase bridge will give six
peaks per cycle; higher numbers of peaks can be achieved by using
transformer networks placed before the rectifier to convert to a higher
phase order. To further reduce ripple, a capacitor-input filter can be
used. This complements the reservoir capacitor with a choke (inductor)
and a second filter capacitor, so that a steadier DC output can be obtained
across the terminals of the filter capacitor. The choke presents a high
impedance to the ripple current. For use at power-line frequencies
inductors require cores of iron or other magnetic materials, and add
weight and size. Their use in power supplies for electronic equipment has
therefore dwindled in favour of semiconductor circuits such as
voltage regulators. A more usual alternative to a filter, and essential if the
DC load requires very low ripple voltage, is to follow the reservoir
capacitor with an active voltage regulator circuit. The reservoir capacitor
needs to be large enough to prevent the troughs of the ripple dropping
below the minimum voltage required by the regulator to produce the
required output voltage. The regulator serves both to significantly reduce
the ripple and to deal with variations in supply and load characteristics. It
would be possible to use a smaller reservoir capacitor (these can be large
on high-current power supplies) and then apply some filtering as well as
the regulator, but this is not a common strategy. The extreme of this
approach is to dispense with the reservoir capacitor altogether and put
the rectified waveform straight into a choke-input filter. The advantage of
this circuit is that the current waveform is smoother and consequently the
rectifier no longer has to deal with the current as a large current pulse,
but instead the current delivery is spread over the entire cycle. The
disadvantage, apart from extra size and weight, is that the voltage output
is much lower – approximately the average of an AC half-cycle rather than
the peak.
Working:-
1st when the A.C. is supplied to the transformer, it steps down the 230V
main supply to 6 volts. It has a capability of delivering a current of
500mA. The 6 volts A.C. appearing across the secondary is the RMS value
and the peak value is 8.4 volts. During the 1st half cycle of the A.C. input
Diode D1 is forward biased and a current ‘I’ flows in the circuit in the
direction
S1D1 ABEOS1. During this time diode D2 is reverse biased. So it does not
conduct any electric current. During the next half
cycle, the diodeD2 is forward and D1 is reversed. Hence D2 conducts
current in the direction S2D2 ABEOS2and D1 does
not conduct any current. In subsequent half cycles of the A.C current the
above processes are repeated. In both the half cycles it is clear that
current flows through the resistor in only
one direction ABE. Even though the voltage across RL is unidirectional it
will still contain a few A.C components. This
is filtered and made smooth using a capacitor, which filters 99% of the
A.C current. A resistor is then used to adjust the output voltage. Capacitor
also nearly filters all A.C components from
the supply and resistance is adjusted for the required output. As this is a
simple circuit, only one capacitor and a resistance are being used. But
there will be slight factor of A.C. current still left in the output but it is
negligible. The output Direct Current and voltage light up the LED.
Graph:-
Merits and Demerits of Full-wave
Rectifier over Half-Wave
Rectifier:-
 Merits:-

1. The rectification efficiency of full-wave rectifier is double of that of

a half-wave rectifier.

2. The ripple voltage is low and of higher frequency in case of a full-

wave rectifier so simple filtering circuit is required.

3. Higher output voltage higher output power and higher TUF in case
of a full-wave rectifier.

4. In a full-wave rectifier, there is no problem due to dc saturation of

the core because the dc currents in the two halves of the
transformer secondary flow in opposite directions.

 Demerits:-

Full-wave rectifier needs more circuit elements and is costlier.

APPLICATIONS:-
How Rectifier Circuit Works in Electronics:-
One of the most common uses for rectifier diodes in electronics is to
convert household alternating current into direct current that can be used
as an alternative to batteries. The rectifier circuit, which is typically made
from a set of cleverly interlocked diodes, converts alternating current to
direct current. In household current, the voltage swings from positive to
negative in cycles that repeat 60 times per second. If you place a diode in
series with an alternating current voltage, you eliminate the negative side
of the voltage cycle, so you end up with just positive voltage. If you look at
the waveform of the voltage coming out of this rectifier diode, you'll see
that it consists of intervals that alternate between a short increase of
voltage and periods of no voltage at all. This is a form of direct current
because it consists entirely of positive voltage. However, it pulsates: first
it's on, then it's off, then it's on again, and so on.
Overall, voltage rectified by a single diode is off half of the time. So
although the positive voltage reaches the same peak level as the input
voltage, the average level of the rectified voltage is only half the level of
the input voltage. This type of rectifier circuit is sometimes called a half-
wave rectifier because it passes along only half of the incoming alternating
current waveform.

A better type of rectifier circuit uses four rectifier diodes, in a special

circuit called a bridge rectifier.

Look at how this rectifier works on both sides of the alternating current
input signal:-
 In the first half of the AC cycle, D2 and D4 conduct because they're
forward biased. Positive voltage is on the anode of D2 and negative
voltage is on the cathode of D4. Thus, these two diodes work
together to pass the first half of the signal through.
  In the second half of the AC cycle, D1 and D3 conduct because
they're forward biased: Positive voltage is on the anode of D1, and
negative voltage is on the cathode of D3.
The net effect of the bridge rectifier is that both halves of the AC sine
wave are allowed to pass through, but the negative half of the wave is
inverted so that it becomes positive. In the bridge circuit four diodes are
connected in the form of a Wheatstone bridge, two diametrically opposite
junctions of the bridge are connected to the secondary of a transformer
and the other two are connected to the load.
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY

 Physics – Textbook for XII (NCERT)

 Modern’s ABC of Physics
 Laboratory Manual (Rachna Sagar Pub.)
 Encyclopaedia
 Google