ME8843

ME 8843
Advanced Mechatronics

Instructor: Professor I. Charles Ume

Power Rectifiers

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ME8843 Outline

•Motivation
•Rectification Technologies
•Types of Rectification
•Rectification Circuits
•Applications

Objective of this Lecture

•To teach you how to use different types of rectifier circuits
to convert AC voltage to DC voltage

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 ME8843
Motivation

• Early experiments with Direct

Current (DC) power relied on Leyden
jars (rudimentary batteries) which
had to be recharged via manual
labor (e.g. grad students)

• Due to efficiency and safety reasons,

Leyden Jar
Alternating Current (AC) is used for
providing electrical power

• A means to convert AC to DC is
required - called Rectification
AC Power
Transmission
Lines

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ME8843 Rectification Technologies
• Electromechanical
• Synchronous rectifier
– Used motor attached to metal contacts that switched direction of
current flow in time with AC input voltage
• Motor-generator set
– An AC motor coupled to DC generator
• Electrolytic
– Two different material electrodes suspended in electrolyte
provide different resistance depending on current flow
• Vacuum Tube
– Capable of high voltages, but relatively low current
• Mercury arc rectifier
– A sealed vessel with mercury in it provides DC power by
transmitting electricity through ionized mercury vapor
– Capable of power on order
Advanced of hundreds
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ME8843
Rectification Technologies
Mercury Vapor Rectifiers

From steel manufacturing plant in Germany

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ME8843 Rectification Technologies
• Rectification Based on Diode
– Rectification is most popular application of diode
– Diodes provide compact and inexpensive means of rectification
– Can create rectifiers from multiple diodes or purchase integrated
module

Diodes Diode Rectifier Modules

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ME8843 Types of Rectification

Half Wave Rectifier

Full Wave Rectifier

• While output of the rectifiers is now DC (current only flows in one

direction), output oscillates

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 ME8843
Types of Rectification

• Half Wave:
– Negative components of sine
wave are discarded

• Full Wave:
– Negative components are
inverted

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 ME8843 Types of Rectification
• Poly-phase
– Industrial settings usually have 3-phase
power available for machines
– Rectifying 3-phase power results in DC
voltage with less ripple

Three-phase full-wave bridge rectifier circuit

Input and output voltages for three-phase rectifier

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ME8843
Rectification Circuit: Half-Wave

• Simplest kind of rectifier circuit is half-wave rectifier.

• Allows one half of AC waveform to pass through to load.
• Converts alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC).
• Involves device that only allows one-way flow of
electrons, and this is exactly what semiconductor diode
does.

Half-wave rectifier circuit

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ME8843 Rectification Circuit: Half-Wave
• For most power applications, half-wave rectification is
insufficient for task.
– Harmonic content of rectifier's output waveform is very large and
consequently difficult to filter.
– AC power source only supplies power to load once every half-
cycle, meaning that much of its capacity is unused.
– Half-wave rectification is, however, very simple way to reduce
power to resistive load.
• Two-position lamp dimmer switches apply full AC power
to lamp filament for “full” brightness and then half-wave
rectify it for a lesser light output.

Half-wave rectifier application: Two level lamp dimmer.

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ME8843 Rectification Circuit: Half-Wave
• In “Dim” switch position, incandescent lamp receives approximately
one-half power it would normally receive operating on full-wave AC.

– Because half-wave rectified power pulses far more rapidly than filament
has time to heat up and cool down, lamp does not blink.
– Instead, its filament merely operates at lesser temperature than normal,
providing less light output.

• This principle of “pulsing” power rapidly to slow-responding load

device to control electrical power sent to it is common in world of
industrial electronics.

• Since controlling device (diode, in this case) is either fully conducting

or fully non-conducting at any given time, it dissipates little heat
energy while controlling load power, making this method of power
control very energy-efficient.

• This circuit is perhaps crudest possible method of pulsing power to a

load, but it suffices as a proof-of-concept application.

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ME8843 Rectifier Circuit: Full-Wave
• If we need to rectify AC power:
– In order obtain full use of both half-cycles of sine wave
• Full-wave rectifier must be used

• Types of full-wave rectifier:

– Center-tap design
– Full-wave bridge.
– Polyphase: Three-phase full-wave bridge rectifier circuit.
• Center-tap design
• Uses transformer with center-tapped secondary winding and two diodes

Full-wave rectifier, center-tapped design.

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 ME8843 Rectifier circuit
• Look at its circuit operation one half-cycle at a time.
• Consider first half-cycle:
– Source voltage polarity is positive (+) on top and negative (-) on
bottom.
– Only top diode is conducting; bottom diode is blocking current,
and load “sees” first half of sine wave.
– Only top half of transformer's secondary winding carries current
during this half-cycle.

Full-wave center-tap rectifier: Top half of secondary winding conducts

during positive half-cycle of input, delivering positive half-cycle to load.

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 ME8843 Rectifier circuit
• Consider next (second) half-cycle:
– AC polarity reverses
– Other diode and other half of transformer's secondary winding
now carry current
– Portions of circuit formerly carrying current during first half-cycle
sit idle
– Load still “sees” half of sine wave, of same polarity as before.

Full-wave center-tap rectifier: During negative input half-cycle, bottom half

of secondary winding conducts, delivering a positive half-cycle to the load.

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ME8843 Rectifier circuit:
• Dual Polarity Full-Wave
– By changing direction of diodes:
• Full-wave center-tapped rectifier polarity at load may be reversed.
– Furthermore, reversed diodes can be paralleled with existing
positive-output rectifier.
– Result is dual-polarity full-wave center-tapped rectifier.
– Note: connectivity of diodes themselves is same configuration as
bridge.

Dual polarity full-wave center tap rectifier

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ME8843
Rectifier Circuit: Full-Wave

• One disadvantage of this full-wave rectifier design is:

– Necessity of transformer with center-tapped secondary winding.
• If circuit in question is one of high power:
– Size and expense of suitable transformer will be significant.
• Consequently:
– Center-tap rectifier design is only seen in low-power
applications.

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ME8843 Rectifier Circuit
• Full-wave Bridge Rectifier.
– More popular full-wave rectifier design
– Built around four-diode bridge configuration.
– For obvious reasons, this design is called full-wave bridge.

Full-wave bridge rectifier.

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ME8843 Rectifier Circuit:
• Full-wave Bridge
– Current directions for positive and negative half-cycles of:
• AC source waveform are shown below and next page respectively.

– Note: regardless of polarity of input, current flows in same direction through

load.

– That is, negative half-cycle of source is positive half-cycle at load.

Full-wave bridge rectifier: Electron flow for positive half-cycles

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ME8843 Rectifier circuit: Full-Wave Bridge

Full-wave bridge rectifier: Electron flow for negative half -cycles.

– Current flow is through two diodes in series for both polarities.

– Thus, sum of voltage drops for two diodes is 2(0.7) volts
– This is disadvantage when compared to full-wave center-tap design.
• Will only be problem in very low voltage power supplies

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ME8843 Rectifier circuit: Full-Wave Bridge
• Full-wave Bridge: with horizontal altitude
– Remembering proper layout of diodes in full-wave bridge rectifier
circuit can often be frustrating some times.
– Alternative representation of this circuit is easier both to remember
and to comprehend.
– It is exact same circuit, except all diodes are drawn in horizontal
altitude, all “pointing” same direction.

Alternative layout style for Full-wave bridge rectifier.

– One advantage of remembering this layout for bridge rectifier

circuit is that it expands easily into poly-phase version shown in
next slide.
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ME8843 Rectifier Circuit
• Poly-phase Three Phase

Three-phase full-wave bridge rectifier circuit.

– Each three-phase line connects between pair of diodes

• One to route power to positive (+) side of load, and other to route power to
negative (-) side of load.

– Poly-phase systems with more than three phases are easily

accommodated into bridge rectifier scheme.
• Take for instance the six-phase bridge rectifier circuit in next slide

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ME8843 Rectifier circuit:
• Poly-phase Six Phase

Six-phase full-wave bridge rectifier circuit.

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ME8843 Rectifier Circuit
• Poly-phase
– When poly-phase AC is rectified
• Phase-shifted pulses overlap each other to produce DC output that is much
“smoother”
– Has less AC content than that produced by rectification of single-
phase AC.
• Big advantage in high-power rectifier circuits, where sheer physical size of
filtering components would be prohibitive but low-noise DC power must be
obtained.
– Figure in next slide shows full-wave rectification of three-phase
AC.

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ME8843
Rectifier circuit
Poly-phase

Three-phase AC and 3-phase full-wave rectifier output.

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ME8843
Rectifier circuit
• In any case of rectification: single-phase or poly-
phase
– Amount of AC voltage mixed with rectifier's DC
output is called ripple voltage.
• In most cases, since “pure” DC is desired goal
– Ripple voltage is undesirable.
• If power levels are not too great
– Filtering networks may be employed to reduce
amount of ripple in output voltage.

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 ME8843 Output Ripple
• Output ripple will always be present in circuits shown above
• Amplitude of ripple can be reduced by adding smoothing capacitor
• Capacitor and load (shown here as resistor) from low pass filter with
time constant : T = RC
• Time constant should be much longer than one ripple
• For given ripple amplitude: capacitor size (in microfarads) is given by
Iload Iload
C 106 (Half wave) or C 106 (Full wave)
fVrip 2 fVrip
f: line frequency
Iload: Load Current
Vrip: Amplitude of ripple voltage

NOTE: Voltage rating of the capacitor must be > 1.4*Vout

Large capacitors should have bleeder resistors for safety!
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ME8843 Rectifier circuit
• Sometimes, method of rectification is referred to by
counting number of DC “pulses” output for every 360o of
electrical “rotation.”
• Single-phase, half-wave rectifier circuit, then, would be
called 1-pulse rectifier, because it produces single pulse
during time of one complete cycle (360o) of AC
waveform.
• Single-phase, full-wave rectifier (regardless of design,
center-tap or bridge) would be called 2-pulse rectifier,
because it outputs two pulses of DC during one AC
cycle's worth of time.
• Three-phase full-wave rectifier would be called 6-pulse
unit.

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 ME8843 Rectifier circuit
• Modern electrical engineering convention further describes
function of rectifier circuit by using three-field notation of
phases, ways, and number of pulses.

– Single-phase, half-wave rectifier circuit is given somewhat cryptic designation

of 1Ph1W1P (1 phase, 1 way, 1 pulse), meaning that AC supply voltage is
single-phase, that current on each phase of AC supply lines moves in only
one direction (way), and that there is single pulse of DC produced for every
360o of electrical rotation.

– Single-phase, full-wave, center-tap rectifier circuit would be designated as

1Ph1W2P in this notational system: 1 phase, 1 way or direction of current in
each winding half, and 2 pulses or output voltage per cycle.

– Single-phase, full-wave, bridge rectifier would be designated as 1Ph2W2P:

same as for center-tap design, except current can go both ways through AC
lines instead of just one way.

– Three-phase bridge rectifier circuit shown earlier would be called a 3Ph2W6P

rectifier.

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ME8843
Rectifier Circuit: Output Voltage

• Full wave rectification will produce voltage roughly equal

to
Vo  2Vi,RMS

• In practice, there will be small voltage drop across

diodes that will reduce this voltage
• For
accurate supplies, regulation is necessary

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ME8843 Rectifier circuit
REVIEW:
• Rectification is conversion of alternating current (AC) to
direct current (DC).
• A half-wave rectifier is circuit that allows only one half-
cycle of AC voltage waveform to be applied to load,
resulting in one non-alternating polarity across it.
– The resulting DC delivered to load “pulsates” significantly.
• A full-wave rectifier is circuit that converts both half-
cycles of AC voltage waveform to unbroken series of
voltage pulses of same polarity.
– The resulting DC delivered to load doesn't “pulsate” as much.
• Poly-phase alternating current, when rectified, gives
much “smoother” DC waveform (less ripple voltage) than
rectified single-phase AC.

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 ME8843 Rectification: Applications
• DC Power supplies
– Used to provide DC power to drive loads
• Radios
– Used to rectify received radio signals as part of AM
demodulation
– Signal to be transmitted is multiplied by a carrier wave
– Diode in receiver rectifies signal

Modulated Rectified Radio

Audio Signal Signal Radio Transmission Wave

Carrier Wave AdvancedMechatronics,

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Advanced
 ME8843 Applications

• Light Dimmer
– Sends unrectified or half wave
AC power through light bulb

• Automobile Alternators
– Output of 3-phase AC generator
is rectified by diode bridge
– More reliable than DC generator

6 Rectifier Diodes
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ME8843 References

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rectifier
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diode_bridge
• http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_3/chpt_3/4.html
• http://my.integritynet.com.au/purdic/power1.html
• http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/radio.htm

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