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CHAPTER 2
RECTIFIER

Ref: Principle of Electronics by V.K Mehta, Rohit Mehta

0201. Rectifier. An electronic device that converts alternating current into direct
current is called rectifier. A rectifier changes A.C. into D.C. by eliminating the
negative half-cycles of the alternating voltage. It may be thought of as a switch that
close a load circuit during the positive half-cycle of ac supply and opens e circuit
during the negative half-cycle. Therefore, a rectifier provides one-way Path for
electric current i.e. conduction takes place in one direction only. It is in this way that
a rectifier converts an alternating current into unidirectional current.

0202. Crystal Diode Rectifiers. For reasons associated with economics of

generation and transmission, the electric power available is usually an a.c. supply.
The supply voltage varies sinusoidally and has a frequency of 50 Hz. It is used for
lighting, heating and electric motors. But there are many applications (e.g. electronic
circuits) where d.c. supply is needed. When such a d.c. supply is required, the
mains a.c. supply is rectified by crystal diodes. The following two rectifier circuits
can be used:

(i) Half wave rectifier (ii) Full wave rectifier

0203. Half Wave Rectifier. In half-wave rectification, the rectifier conducts

current only during the positive half-cycles of input a.c. supply. The negative half-
cycles of a.c. supply are suppressed i.e. during negative half-cycles, no current is
conducted and hence no voltage appears across the load. Therefore, current
always flows in one direction (i.e. d.c.) through the load though after every half-
cycle.

Fig: 2.1

a. Circuit details. Fig. 2.1 shows the circuit where a single crystal
diode acts as a half-wave rectifier. The a.c. supply to be rectified is applied
in series with the diode and load resistance RL. Generally, a.c. supply is
given through a transformer. The use of transformer permits two
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advantages. Firstly, it allows us to step up or step down the a.c. input

voltage as the situation demands. Secondly, the transformer isolates
the rectifier circuit from power line and thus reduces the risk of electric
shock.

b. Operation. The a.c. voltage across the secondary winding AB

changes polarities after every half-cycle. During the positive half-cycle of
input a.c. voltage, end A becomes positive w.r.t. end B. This makes the diode
forward biased and hence it conducts current. During the negative half-cycle,
end A is negative w.r.t. end B. Under this condition, the diode is reverse
biased and it conducts no current. Therefore, current flows through the diode
during positive half-cycles of input a.c. voltage only; it is blocked during the
negative half-cycles [See Fig. 2.1 (ii)]. In this way, current flows through load
RL always in the same direction. Hence d.c. output is obtained across RL. It
may be noted that output across the load is pulsating d.c. These pulsations in
the output are further smoothened with the help of filter circuits discussed
later.

c. Disadvantages. The main disadvantages of a half-wave rectifier

are:

(i) The pulsating current in the load contains alternating

component whose basic frequency is equal to the supply frequency.
Therefore, an elaborate filtering is required to produce steady
direct current.

(ii) The a.c. supply delivers power only half the time. Therefore, the
output is low.

0204. Efficiency of Half-Wave Rectifier. The ratio of dc power output to the

applied input ac power is known as rectifier efficiency i.e.

Fig: 2.2
Consider a half-wave rectifier shown in Fig. 2.2. Let v = Vm sinθ be the
alternating voltage that appears across the secondary winding. Let Rf and RL be the
diode resistance and load resistance respectively. The diode conducts during
positive half-cycles of a.c. supply while no current conduction takes place during
negative half-cycles.

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0205. Full Wave Rectifier. In full-wave rectification, current flows through the load in
the same direction for both half-cycles of input a.c. voltage. This can be achieved
with two diodes working alternately. For the positive half-cycle of input voltage, one
diode supplies current to the load and for the negative half-cycle, the other diode
does so; current being always in the same direction through the load. Therefore, a
full-wave rectifier utilizes both half-cycles of input a.c. voltage to produce the d.c.
output. The following two circuits are commonly used for full-wave rectification:

(i) Centre-tap full-wave rectifier (ii) Full-wave bridge rectifier

0206. Centre-Tap Full-Wave Rectifier. The circuit employs two diodes D1 and D2
as shown in Fig. 2.3. A center tapped secondary winding AB is used with two
diodes connected so that each uses one half-cycle of input a.c. voltage. In other
words, diode D1 utilizes the a.c. voltage appearing across the upper half (OA) of
secondary winding for rectification while diode D2 uses the lower half winding OB.

a. Operation. During the positive half-cycle of secondary voltage, the

end A of the secondary winding becomes positive and end B negative. This
makes the diode D1 forward biased and diode D2 reverse biased. Therefore,
diode D1 conducts while diode D2 does not. The conventional current flow is
through diode D1, load resistor RL and the upper half of secondary winding
as shown by the dotted arrows. During the negative half-cycle, end A of the
secondary winding becomes negative and end B positive. Therefore, diode
D2 conducts while diode D1 does not. The conventional current flow is
through diode D2, load RL and lower half winding as shown by solid arrows.
Referring to Fig. 2.3, it may be seen that current in the load RL is in the same
direction for both half-cycles of input a.c. voltage. Therefore, d.c. is obtained
across the load RL. Also, the polarities of the d.c. output across the load
should be noted.

Fig: 2.3

b. Peak inverse voltage. Suppose Vm is the maximum voltage

across the half secondary winding. Fig. 2.4 shows the circuit at the instant
secondary voltage reaches its maximum value in the positive direction. At
this instant, diode D1 is conducting while diode D2 is non-conducting.
Therefore, whole of the secondary voltage appears across the non-

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conducting diode. Consequently, the peak inverse voltage is twice the

maximum voltage across the half-secondary winding i.e.

PIV = 2 Vm

c. Disadvantages.

(i) It is difficult to locate the centre tap on

the secondary winding.

(ii) The d.c. output is small as each diode

utilises only one-half of the transformer
secondary voltage.

(iii) The diodes used must have high peak

inverse voltage.
Fig: 2.4

0207. Full-Wave Bridge Rectifier. The need for a center tapped power
transformer is eliminated in the bridge rectifier. It contains four diodes D1, D2, D3
and D4 connected to form bridge as shown in Fig. 2.5. The a.c. supply to be rectified
is applied to the diagonally opposite ends of the bridge through the transformer.
Between other two ends of the bridge, the load resistance RL is connected.

Fig: 2.5

a. Operation. During the positive half-cycle of secondary voltage, the

end P of the secondary winding becomes positive and end Q negative. This
makes diodes D1 and D3 forward biased while diodes D2 and D4 are reverse
biased. Therefore, only diodes D1 and D3 conduct. These two diodes will be
in series through the load RL as shown in Fig. 2.6 (i). The conventional
current flow is shown by dotted arrows. It may be seen that current flows
from A to B through the load RL

During the negative half-cycle of secondary voltage, end P becomes negative

and end Q positive. This makes diodes D2 and D4 forward biased whereas
diodes D1 and D3 are reverse biased. Therefore, only diodes D2 and D 4
conduct. These two diodes will be in series through the load RL as shown in
Fig. 2.6 (ii). The current flow is shown by the solid arrows. It may be seen
that again current flows from A to B through the load i.e. in the same
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direction as for the positive half-cycle. Therefore, D.C. output is obtained

across load RL.

Fig: 2.6
b. Advantages.

(i) The need for centre-tapped transformer is eliminated.

(ii) The output is twice that of the centre-tap circuit for the same
secondary voltage.

(iii) The PIV is one-half that of the centre-tap circuit (for same d.c.
output).

c. Disadvantages.

(i) It requires four diodes.

(ii) As during each half-cycle of a.c. input two diodes that conduct
are in series, therefore, voltage drop in the internal resistance of the
rectifying unit will be twice as great as in the centre tap circuit. This is
objectionable when secondary voltage is small.

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