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Introduction of Rectifier

Rectifier converts alternating current to direct current. A half wave rectifier only allows one half of the alternating current waveform to pass through, rectifying only the positive or negative half cycle. It consists of a transformer, diode, and load resistor. During the positive half cycle, current flows through the diode from anode to cathode, producing pulsating DC voltage at the load. During the negative half cycle, the diode is reverse biased so no current flows through the load. The half wave rectifier has low efficiency around 40% and high ripple factor around 1.21.

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2K views

Introduction of Rectifier

Rectifier converts alternating current to direct current. A half wave rectifier only allows one half of the alternating current waveform to pass through, rectifying only the positive or negative half cycle. It consists of a transformer, diode, and load resistor. During the positive half cycle, current flows through the diode from anode to cathode, producing pulsating DC voltage at the load. During the negative half cycle, the diode is reverse biased so no current flows through the load. The half wave rectifier has low efficiency around 40% and high ripple factor around 1.21.

Uploaded by

Suraj
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Introduction of Rectifier

Rectifier is an electronic device which coverts the alternating current to


unidirectional current, in other words rectifier converts the AC voltage to DC
voltage. We use rectifier in almost all the electronic devices mostly in the power
supply section to convert the main voltage into DC voltage. Every electronic
device will work on the DC voltage supply only.
Rectifiers are classified according to the period of conduction.
They are
1. Half Wave Rectifier
2. Full Wave Rectifier
You may get detailed information about full wave rectifier in the post: Theory and
Working of Full Wave Rectifier. In this session we will see about the working of
half wave rectifier and its applications.

Half Wave Rectifier:


The half wave rectifier is a type of rectifier that rectifies only half cycle of the
waveform. This article describes the half wave rectifier circuit working. The half
rectifier consist a step down transformer, a diode connected to the transformer
and a load resistance connected to the cathode end of the diode. The circuit
diagram of half wave transformer is shown below:

The main supply voltage is given to the transformer which will increase or
decrease the voltage and give to the diode. In most of the cases we will decrease
the supply voltage by using the step down transformer here also the output of the
step down transformer will be in AC. This decreased AC voltage is given to the
diode which is connected serial to the secondary winding of the transformer,
diode is electronic component which will allow only the forward bias current and
will not allow the reverse bias current. From the diode we will get the pulsating
DC and give to the load resistance RL.

Working of Half Wave Rectifier:


The input given to the rectifier will have both positive and negative cycles. The
half rectifier will allow only the positive half cycles and omit the negative half
cycles. So first we will see how half wave rectifier works in the positive half
cycles.

Positive Half Cycle:

In the positive half cycles when the input AC power is given to the primary
winding of the step down transformer, we will get the decreased voltage at the
secondary winding which is given to the diode.

The diode will allow current flowing in clock wise direction from anode to
cathode in the forward bias (diode conduction will take place in forward bias)
which will generate only the positive half cycle of the AC.

The diode will eliminate the variations in the supply and give the pulsating
DC voltage to the load resistance RL. We can get the pulsating DC at the
Load resistance.

Negative Half Cycle:

In the negative half cycle the current will flow in the anti-clockwise direction
and the diode will go in to the reverse bias. In the reverse bias the diode will
not conduct so, no current in flown from anode to cathode, and we cannot get
any power at the load resistance.

Only small amount of reverse current is flown from the diode but this
current is almost negligible. And voltage across the load resistance is also
zero.

Characteristics of Half Wave Rectifier:


There are some characteristics to the half wave rectifier they are
1. Efficiency: The efficiency is defined as the ratio of input AC to the output DC.
Efficiency, = P dc / Pac
DC power delivered to the load, Pdc = I2dc RL = ( Imax/pi ) 2 RL
AC power input to the transformer, Pac = Power dissipated in junction of diode +
Power dissipated in load resistance RL
= I2rms RF + I2rms RL = {I2MAX/4}[RF + RL]
Rectification Efficiency, = Pdc / Pac = {4/ 2}[RL/ (RF + RL)] = 0.406/{1+ RF/RL }
If RF is neglected, the efficiency of half wave rectifier is 40.6%.
2. Ripple factor: It is defined as the amount of AC content in the output DC. It
nothing but amount of AC noise in the output DC. Less the ripple factor,
performance of the rectifier is more. The ripple factor of half wave rectifier is
about 1.21 (full wave rectifier has about 0.48). It can be calculated as follows:

The effective value of the load current I is given as sum of the rms values of
harmonic currents I1, I2, I3, I4 and DC current Idc.

I2 =I2dc+I21+I22+I24 = I2dc +I2ac


Ripple factor, is given as = I ac / Idc = (I2 - I2dc) / Idc = {( I rms / Idc2)-1} = Kf2 1)
Where Kf is the form factor of the input voltage. Form factor is given as
Kf = Irms /Iavg = (Imax/2)/ (Imax/pi) = pi/2 = 1.57
So, ripple factor, = (1.572 1) = 1.21
3. Peak Inverse Voltage: It is defined as the maximum voltage that a diode can
with stand in reverse bias. During the reverse bias as the diode do not conduct
total voltage drops across the diode. Thus peak inverse voltage is equal to the
input voltage Vs.
4. Transformer Utilization Factor (TUF): The TUF is defined as the ratio of DC
power is delivered to the load and the AC rating of the transformer secondary.
Half wave rectifier has around 0.287 and full wave rectifier has around 0.693.
Half wave rectifier is mainly used in the low power circuits. It has very low
performance when it is compared with the other rectifiers.

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