Unit 3

Q1 What do you mean by Half wave Rectifiers ?

Ans
2.5. Rectifiers:
Rectification is the conversion of alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC). This involves a
device that only allows one-way flow of electrons. The main application of p-n junction diode is in
rectification circuits. Diode rectifier gives an alternating voltage which pulsates in accordance with
time. The filter smoothes the pulsation in the voltage and to produce d.c voltage, a regulator is used
which removes the ripples. There are two primary methods of diode rectification:
 Half Wave Rectifier
 Full Wave Rectifier

2.5.1. Half Wave Rectifier:

In a half-wave rectifier, one half of each a.c input cyc le is rectified. When the p-n junction diode is
forward biased, it gives little resistance and when it is reversing biased it provides high resistance.

Figure.2.15. Half wave Rectifier

Working: The half wave rectifier has both positive and negative cycles. During positive half of the
input, the current will flow from positive to negative which will generate only positive half cycle of
the a.c supply. When a.c supply is applied to the transformer, the voltage will be decreasing at the
secondary winding of the diode. All the variations in the a.c supply will reduce and we will get the
pulsating d.c voltage to the load resistor.
In the second half cycle, current will flow from negative to positive and the diode will be reverse
biased. Thus, at the output side, there will be no current generated and we cannot get power at the
load resistance. A small amount of reverse current will flow during reverse bias due to minority
carriers.

Q2 What do you mean by Full wave Rectifiers ?

Ans
2.5.2. Centre Tapped Full Wave Rectifier
A centre tapped full wave rectifier is a type of rectifier which uses a centre tapped transformer and
two diodes to convert the complete AC signal into DC signal.
The centre tapped full wave rectifier is made up of an AC source, a centre tapped transformer, two
diodes, and a load resistor.
Full wave rectifier utilizes both halves of each a.c input. When the p-n junction is forward biased,
the diode offers low resistance and when it is reversing biased it gives high resistance. The AC
source is connected to the primary winding of the centre tapped transformer. A centre tap
(additional wire) connected at the exact middle of the the secondary winding divides the input
voltage into two parts.
The upper part of the secondary winding is connected to the diode D1 and the lower part of the
secondary winding is connected to the diode D 2. Both diode D 1 and diode D 2 are connected to a
common load RL with the help of a center tap transformer. The center tap is generally considered as
the ground point or the zero voltage reference point.
Working:
When input AC voltage is applied, the secondary winding of the center tapped transformer divides
this input AC voltage into two parts: positive and negative.
During the positive half cycle of the input AC signal, terminal A become positive, terminal B
become negative and centre tap is grounded (zero volts). The positive terminal A is connected to
the p-side of the diode D1 and the negative terminal B is connected to the n-side of the diode D 1. So
the diode D1 is forward biased during the positive half cycle and allows electric current through it.
On the other hand, the negative terminal B is connected to the p-side of the diode D2 and the
positive terminal A is connected to the n-side of the diode D2. So the diode D 2 is reversed biased
during the positive half cycle and does not allow electric current through it.
The diode D1 supplies DC current to the load RL. The DC current produced at the load R L will
return to the secondary winding through a centre tap. Thus, during the positive half cycle of the
input AC signal, only diode D 1 allows electric current while diode D2 does not allow electric
current.
During the negative half cycle of the input AC signal, terminal A become negative, terminal B
become positive and centre tap is grounded (zero volts). The negative terminal A is connected to
the p-side of the diode D1 and the positive terminal B is connected to the n-side of the diode D1. So
the diode D1 is reversed biased during the negative half cycle and does not allow electric current
through it. On the other hand, the positive terminal B is connected to the p-side of the diode D2 and
the negative terminal A is connected to the n-side of the diode D2. So the diode D2 is forward
biased during the negative half cycle and allows electric current through it.
The diode D 2 supplies DC current to the load RL. The DC current produced at the load R L will
return to the secondary winding through a centre tap.
Thus, the diode D1 allows electric current during the positive half cycle a nd diode D 2 allows
electric current during the negative half cycle of the input AC signal. As a result, both half cycles
(positive and negative) of the input AC signal are allowed. So the output DC voltage is almost
equal to the input AC voltage.

Figure.2.16. Centre Tapped Full Wave Rectifier

 Q3 What do you mean by Bridge Rectifiers ?
Ans
2.5.3. The bridge rectifier:
The Bridge rectifier is a circuit, which converts an ac voltage to dc voltage using both half cycles
of the input ac voltage. The Bridge rectifier circuit is shown in the following figure. The circuit has
four diodes connected to form a bridge. The ac input voltage is applied to the diagonally opposite
ends of the bridge. The load resistance is connected between the other two ends of the bridge. For
the positive half cycle of the input ac voltage, diodes D1 and D2 conduct, whereas diodes D3 and
D4 remain in the OFF state. The conducting diodes will be in series with the load resistance RL and
hence the load current flows through RL. For the negative half cycle of the input ac voltage, diodes
D3 and D4 conduct whereas, D1 and D2 remain OFF. The conducting diodes D3 and D4 will be in
series with the load resistance RL and hence the curren t flows through RL in the same direction as
in the previous half cycle. Thus a bi-directional wave is converted into a unidirectional wave.

Figure.2.17. Bridge Rectifier

Q4 What do you mean by Ripple factor ?

Ans
2.5.4. Ripple factor
The effectiveness of a rectifier depends upon the magnitude of ac component in the output; smaller the ac
component, the more effective is the rectifier. Ripple factor is a measure of effectiveness of a rectifier circuit
and defined as a ratio of RMS value of ac component to the dc component in the rectifier output. The output
DC signal with very fewer ripples is considered as the smooth DC signal while the output DC signal with high
ripples is considered as the high pulsating DC signal.
Ripple factor is mathematically defined as the ratio of ripple voltage to the pure DC voltage. The ripple factor
for a bridge rectifier is given by
  Efficiency in rectifiers is equal to the ratio of output DC power (i.e V dc*Idc) to the input power
from the AC supply (Irms2.R)
 Efficiency of half wave rectifier is very low its approx 40.5 percent, because there is presence
of very high magnitudes of ripples.
 For full wave rectifier ripple factor is very less and that’s why efficiency is quite high i.e
approx 81.2 percent.

Q5 What do you mean by Filters?

Ans
2.5.5. Filters:
The output Direct Current (DC) produced by the half wave rectifier contains large ripples. This ripple voltage
fluctuates with respect to time. So it is not suitable for practical applications. To overcome these problems, we
use filters at the output. Even though we use filters at the output, the DC signal obtained at the output is not a
pure DC. Furthermore, the power loss is high in half wave rectifier. The filter is an electronic device that
converts the pulsating Direct Current into pure Direct Current.
The filter is made up of a combination of electronic components such as resistors, capacitors, and inductors.
The property of inductor is that it allows the DC components and blocks the AC components. The property of
a capacitor is that it allows the AC components and blocks the DC components.

Figure.2.18. Full wave Rectifier with Capacitor filter

Working:
The main duty of the capacitor filter is to short the ripples to the ground and blocks the pure DC
(DC components), so that it flows through the alternate path and reaches output load resistor R L.
When input AC voltage is applied, during the positive half cycle, the diode D1 is forward biased
and allows electric current whereas the diode D 2 is reverse biased and blocks electric current. On
the other hand, during the negative half cycle the diode D2 is forward biased (allows electric
current) and the diode D 1 is reverse biased (blocks electric current).
The charging of the capacitor happens only when the applied AC voltage is greater than the
capacitor voltage.
Initially, the capacitor is uncharged. That means no voltage exists between the plates of the
capacitor. So when the voltage is turned on, the charging of the capacitor happens immediately.
During this conduction period, the capacitor charges to the maximum value of the input supply
voltage. The capacitor stores a maximum charge exactly at the quarter positive half cycle in the
waveform. At this point, the supply voltage is equal to the capacitor voltage.
When the AC voltage starts decreasing and becomes less than the capacitor voltage, then the
capacitor starts slowly discharging.
The discharging of the capacitor is very slow as compared to the charging of the capacitor. So the
capacitor does not get enough time to completely discharge. Before the complete discharge of the
capacitor happens, the charging again takes place. So only half or more than half of the capacitor
charge get discharged.