Rectifiers (AC –DC Converters)

Dr. Luqman Maraaba

Power Electronics AAUP

Introduction
Several types of rectifier circuits are available: single-phase and three-phase half-wave and full-
wave, controlled and uncontrolled, etc.

Uncontrolled Rectifier Provide a fixed d.c. output voltage for a given a.c. supply where diodes
are used only.

Controlled Rectifier Provide an adjustable d.c. output voltage by controlling the phase at which
the devices are turned on, where thyristors and diodes are used.
Power Diodes
These are two terminal switches, as shown in the following figure , formed of a pn junction. It
is not controllable and its operating states are determined by the circuit operating point.
 Examination of the diode characteristics reveals three distinct regions:

1. Forward-biased region, where VD > 0

2. Reversed-biased region, where VD < 0

3. Breakdown region, where VD < -VBR

 Ideally, the diode is represented by a short circuit when forward biased

and as an open circuit when reversed biased
Types of Power Diodes:
1. Standard or general-purpose

2. Fast recovery

3. Schottky
Standard or general-purpose Diodes
1. On state voltage very low (below 1 V)
2. Large reverse recovery time (about 25μs) .
3. Very high current (up to 6 kA) and voltage (8 kV) ratings
4. Used in line-frequency (50/60Hz) applications such as rectifiers.
Fast recovery Diodes
 Very low (<1 μs).
 Power levels at several hundred volts and several hundred amps.
 Normally used in high frequency circuits.

Schottky Diodes
 Recovery charge of this diode is much less than the equivalent pn-junction diode

 Very low forward voltage drop (typical 0.3V )

 limited blocking voltage (50-100V) .

 Used in low voltage, high current application such as switched mode power

supplies.
Single-phase Half-Wave Uncontrolled Rectifier with
resistive load
 Single-phase Half-Wave Uncontrolled
Rectifier with resistive load
 The circuit is supplied by a single phase transformer
whose secondary represents the rectifier’s circuit AC
source () that is represented by a sinusoidal wave
given by

Single-phase half-wave rectifier

 For this configuration, the diode will conducts
(becomes forward biased) whenever the supply
voltage () is positive.
 Single-phase half-wave rectifier

 The average value of the load voltage can be calculated

as follows:
 Since the load is resistive, therefore the load voltage and current are in phase and they are related by . Consequently,
the average value of the load current is

 The output DC power is given by:

 The rms value of the load voltage can be calculated as follows:

 Therefore the rms value of the load current is :

 The output a.c. power is given by:

 Performance Parameters
 The efficiency or rectification ratio of a rectifier is given by

 Output A.C. Component : The output voltage can be considered to have two components: including (i) d.c. value
and (ii) the a.c. components or ripple. The rms value of the a.c. component of the output voltage is

 Form Factor, FF It is a measure of the shape of the output voltage.

 Ripple factor, RF : It is a measure of the ripple content or the degree of distortion in a rectified voltage
waveform which can be calculated as

 Transformer utilization factor, TUF

where Vs and Is are the rms voltage and rms current of the transformer secondary respectively.

 Power Factor

 Peak inverse voltage (PIV) or peak reverse voltage (PRV) It is the maximum voltage that can be safely applied to
the diode in its reverse direction without breakdown.
 Consider the waveforms in the following figure

vs is the sinusoidal input voltage

is is the instantaneous input current

is1 is the fundamental component of is

 The displacement angle  is the angle between fundamental components of input current and voltage

 The displacement factor (DF) or Displacement Power Factor (DPF) is defined as cosine of .

 The harmonic factor (HF) also known as total harmonic distortion (THD) is a measure of the distortion of a
waveform. The harmonic factor of the input current is given as

Where both currents are recorded as rms values

 The crest factor is a comparison of the peak input current to its rms value. It is given as
Example
Single phase half-wave uncontrolled rectifier with R-L Load
 If the load consists of a series resistor and inductor, the current will flow
through the negative cycle as well

 During conduction period, we have by KVL;

: The extinction angle

 Each supply period (cycle) can be divided into 4-distinct regions:-

 From : the current rises from zero to peak, which lags the voltage
peak due to circuit inductance; is positive and the inductance store
energy.

 From : the current decays, and hence is negative. Both source and
inductance supply energy to R.

 From : the current continues to decay until it reaches zero , remains

negative ,and hence energy is supplied by inductance to both source
and resistor.

 From : at current reaches zero and the diode cut-out. Current

remains zero until the beginning of the next positive half cycle.
 The average output voltage is

 The average output current is

Equation of the current:
 During conduction period, we have by KVL;

 The equation for the current through R-L load can be found from
the solution of the differential equation above which can be re-
written as:

 This is a first order differential equation. The solution of this

equation has two parts:

1- Steady state solution

2- Transient solution
 The complete solution
is :

Equation 1

 The constant A can be found from initial conditions:when t = 0, ,

 Substitute A into Equation 1 yields

 The final current equation is

 The rms current could be estimated by the following formula

 The extinction angle can be determined for a given load impedance angle from the final current equation

 From the final condition of the current, when , . hence from above equation :

 This is a transcendental equation which cannot be solved analytically. It can only be solved numerically by iteration
technique as follows:

The initial guess of is : where Δ is few degrees.

Example
RL Load Circuit with Free-Wheeling Diode:
RL load current is characterized (without free wheeling diode):
1. Discontinuous current.
2. High ripple content.

Using free wheeling diode D2 will eliminate the first draw back & second such reduced.
Analysis: Transient & Steady-State

Transient: D1 is on & D2 is off 0 < t < 

Also
At t = , goes negative & stored energy in the inductance is dissipated
& by current flowing through RL.
  < t < 2  D1 is off & D2 is on

Also

• At t = 2, goes positive & since = 0, D1 one more

commences to conduct.
• At this instant, the current in the load circuit is
Steady State Analysis:
At the beginning of the next cycle of, is no longer zero, and in succeeding cycles and approach steady-
state values such that the current at the beginning and end of the cycle is a constant value .

 Constant A in the second cycle is different from the one calculated in the first cycle.