AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY–BANGLADESH

(AIUB)
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF EEE
ELECTRONIC DEVICES LAB
Fall 2022-2023
Section: R, Group: 03

LAB REPORT ON

STUDY OF DIODE RECTIFIERS

SUPERVISED BY
DR. MD. KABIRUZZAMAN

Faculty, Department of EEE

SUBMITTED BY:
NAME ID
1. P.M. TASRIFUL ISLAM 22-47885-2
2. MAHIR FARDIN AYAT 22-48188-2
3. CHANDRO SEKHOR ROY 22-46136-1
4. ANIK BEN ALAMGIR 22-47941-2
5. SIDDATUN BIN MD SADI 22-47943-2

Submission Date: October 4, 2023.

 Title: Study of Diode Rectifiers.

Abstract:
An AC voltage is rectified by a diode so that it can be
smoothed out and changed into a DC voltage. A rectifier can
provide a DC voltage that is either constant or vary with
time. A silicon controlled rectifier, on the other hand,
produces a variable DC voltage.

Introduction:
The objectives of this lab are to:
1) Study Half wave rectifiers,
2) Study Full wave rectifiers.

Objectives: Study of half wave and full wave rectifiers.

Theory and Methodology:

Diode rectifiers are of the following types:
1. Half Wave Rectifiers
2. Full-wave Bridge rectifiers
3. Centre tapped full-wave rectifiers.

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 A rectifier, by itself, is unable to generate a steady DC
voltage. Therefore, a filter circuit is followed by the
rectification block, which produces a smooth output DC
voltage. In this situation, the capacitor functions as a
smoothing filter to make the output voltage almost DC.
There will always be some residual ripple on the output
voltage because a filter cannot completely eliminate voltage
variations. While the full-wave rectified signal has twice the
average or DC level of the half-wave signal, or 63.6% of the
peak value, the half-wave voltage signal, which is typically
created by a network with a single diode, has an average or
comparable DC voltage level equal to 31.8% of the peak
voltage.

Working Principle of Half-wave rectifier:

Only the first half of the applied AC voltage is utilized in
half wave rectifiers. The negative half cycle gets omitted or
blocked by the diode. With only one diode, conduction only
occurs throughout half of the whole cycle. The following
schematic depicts the circuit for a half wave rectifier
without a capacitor.

The anode of the diode becomes positive in comparison to

cathode during positive half cycle of the input voltage.
Current flows through the diode while in this position as the
diode is in forward bias, and a positive cycle forms across
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 the load resistance RL. The anode is negative with respect to
cathode during the negative half of the input voltage cycle,
and the diode is biased in the opposite direction. Since there
is no current flowing through the diode, there is no output
voltage.
Working Principle of Full-Wave rectifier:
A bridge rectifier is a circuit that uses both of the input ac
voltage's half cycles to convert an AC voltage to a DC
voltage.
A bridge rectifier circuit is shown in the following diagram.
Four diodes in the circuit are wired together to form a
bridge. The bridge's diagonally opposed ends receive the AC
input voltage. The bridge's other two ends are connected to
the load resistance. While diodes D3 and D4 stay in the OFF
state, diodes D1 and D2 conduct during the positive half
cycle of the input AC voltage. The load current will flow via
RL because the conducting diodes are connected in series
with the load resistance.
Diodes D3 and D4 conduct for the input AC voltage's
negative half cycle, whereas D1 and D2 do not. The
conducting diodes D3 and D4 will be in series with the load
resistance RL and hence the current flows through RL in the
same direction as in the previous half cycle. Thus a
bidirectional wave is converted into a unidirectional wave.

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 Figure 2: During positive half-cycle of the input, D1 and D2 are
forward-biased and conduct current. D3 and D4 are reverse-
biased.

Figure 3: During negative half-cycle of the input, D3 and D4

are forward-biased and conduct current. D1 and D2 are
reverse-biased.
Working Principle of Center Trapped Full-Wave rectifier:
As seen in the image below, a center tapped rectifier is a type
of full wave rectifier that employs two diodes coupled to the
secondary of a center tapped transformer. The transformer
couples the input voltage to the center-tapped secondary. The
center tap and each end of the secondary winding are where
half of the total secondary voltage appears, as indicated.

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 Figure 4: During positive half-cycle of the input, D1 is
forward-biased and D2 is reverse-biased.

The polarities of the secondary voltages as depicted in figure

4 are for a positive half cycle of the input voltage. In this
circumstance, diode D1 is forward biased, whereas diode D 2
is reverse biased.
The load resistor RL and D1 are both parts of the current
route.

Figure 5: During negative half-cycle of the input, D2 is

forward-biased and D1 is reversebiased.

The voltage polarities on the secondary are displayed in

figure 5, for an input voltage half-cycle that is negatively

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 biased. This circumstance D1 is biased backwards and D2 is
biased forward. The current flows through RL and D2.
The output voltage created across the load resistor is a full
wave rectified DC voltage because the output current
through the load is flowing in the same direction during both
the positive and negative portions of the input cycle.

Apparatus:
1. 4 Diodes

2. 1 pc 10k resistor

3. Project board

4. Oscilloscope

5. Multimeter

6. Transformer 220V/12V/9V/6V

7. 1 pc 47 uF Capacitor

8. 1 pc 100 uF capacitor

9. 2 Chords.

Circuit Diagrams:

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 Figure 6: Shows circuit diagram of half wave rectification.

Figure 7: Shows circuit diagram of full wave center trapped rectification.

Figure 8: Shows circuit diagram of full wave rectification.

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 Experimental Procedure:
i. The circuit was connected as per figure-6 without
capacitor.
ii. The oscilloscope was connected and the waveforms
were observed of the input and output voltages. From
there the peak DC voltage was measured.
iii. The output voltage was measured with the help of a
multimeter and it was compared with the readings
obtained from oscilloscope.
iv. The power supply was then turned off and 47 uF
capacitor was connected across the load and the output
voltage was observed by using oscilloscope.
v. The output voltage was again measured with a
multimeter and was compared the values obtained
from oscilloscope.
vi. Again the power supply was turned off and capacitor
replaced with 100 uF capacitor. vii. The process
was again repeated as per step iv and v. viii.
Thereafter, the procedures from i to vii were
repeated for circuit figures 7 and 8.

Component Setup and Oscilloscope View:

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 Figure 9: Shows component implements of half wave rectification.

Figure 10: Shows component implements of full wave rectification.

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 Figure 11: Shows component implements of center trapped full bridge rectification.

Figure 12: Shows oscilloscope view with capacitor(below one) and without capacitor(Upper
one).

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Simulations:

Figure 13: Shows simulations of half wave rectification without any output capacitor, converted
as 6V AC to 2.461V DC and oscilloscope max channel B voltage is 7.961V DC.

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 Figure 14: Shows simulations of half wave rectification with output capacitor, converted as 6V
AC to
7.719V DC and oscilloscope max channel B voltage is 7.869V DC.

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 Figure 15: Shows simulations of half wave rectification with output capacitor, converted as 6V AC to 7.776V
DC and oscilloscope max channel B voltage is 7.837V DC.

Figure 16: Shows simulations of full wave center trapped rectification without any output capacitor, converted
as 6V AC to 4.925V DC and oscilloscope max channel B voltage is 7.957V DC.

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 Figure 17: Shows simulations of full wave center trapped rectification with output capacitor, converted as
6V AC to 7.804V DC and oscilloscope max channel B voltage is 7.867V DC.

Figure 18: Shows simulations of full wave center trapped rectification output capacitor, converted as 6V AC
to 7.815V DC and oscilloscope max channel B voltage is 7.844V DC.

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Figure 19: Shows simulations of full wave rectification without any output capacitor, converted as 6V AC to
4.464V DC and oscilloscope max channel B voltage is 7.435V DC.

Figure 20: Shows simulations of full wave rectification with output capacitor, converted as 6V AC to 7.187V
DC and oscilloscope max channel B voltage is 7.243V DC.

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Figure 21: Shows simulations of full rectification with output capacitor, converted as 6V AC to 7.192V DC
and oscilloscope max channel B voltage is 7.218V DC.

Experimental Data:

Table 1: Data Table for circuit of Figure – 1

Vo (Oscilloscope) Vo ( Multimeter)
No Capacitance 11.8 3.00
47μF 9.68 9.56
100 μF 10.1 9.63

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 Table 2: Data Table for circuit of Figure – 2
Vo (Oscilloscope) Vo ( Multimeter)
No Capacitance 10.56 6.00
47μF 10.30 10.08
100 μF 10.30 10.9

Table 3: Data Table for circuit of Figure – 3

Vo (Oscilloscope) Vo ( Multimeter)
No Capacitance 10.00 5.54
47μF 9.78 9.62
100 μF 9.79 9.37

Discussion:
1. Addition of capacitors had a smoothing effect on the output. The
voltage was more stable after filtration and the waveform
resembled more of a DC output.
2. Increase of capacitor value increased the stability and had a higher
smoothing effect on the output voltage, while reducing the peak
delta.
3. From this experiment we have learned how we convert AC to DC
using diode rectifiers. In general, there are three type of rectifiers:
half-wave rectifiers, center tapped full-wave rectifiers and full
wave bridge rectifiers. The first 2 rectifiers are cheap in price,
whereas full-wave bridge rectifiers are expensive due to higher
number of diodes are used.

References:
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 [1] AdelS. Sedra, Kennth C. Smith, “Microelectronic Circuits”,
Saunders College Publishing, 3rd ed., ISBN: 0-03-051648-X,
1991.
[2] DavidJ. Comer, Donald T. Comer, Fundamentals of Electronic
Circuit Design, John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd.; ISBN:
0471410160, 2002.
[3] AmericanInternational University–Bangladesh (AIUB) Electronic
Devices Lab Manual.

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