PN JUNCTION DIODES: By Dechen Lhamo

APPLICATION OF PN Lecturer
ECED
JUNCTION DIODES
PN JUNCTION DIODE
APPLICATION:
RECTIFIERS
Why Rectification?
Generation, Transmission and Distribution is electrical Energy is AC
The supply voltage is 230V (rms) at 50 Hz.
But many electronic circuits require DC source. Hence rectify AC
input voltage to DC Voltage
DIODE RECTIFIER
The diode and load RL connected in series with an AC source
During the positive half-cycle of AC. input voltage, diode is forward
biased and conducts current in the circuit.
The result is that positive half-cycle of input voltage appears across R L
During the negative half-cycle of input a.c. voltage, the diode becomes
reverse biased
Therefore, diode does not conduct and no voltage appears across load R L.
The result is that output consists of positive half-cycles of input a.c.
voltage while the negative half-cycles are suppressed.
The output across RL is pulsating DC.
RECTIFIER CIRCUITS

Half-wave rectifier
the rectifier conducts current only during the positive half-cycles of input a.c. supply
The negative half-cycles of a.c. supply are suppressed
Full-wave rectifier
current flows through the load in the same direction for both half-cycles of input a.c.
voltage.
Achieved with two diodes working alternately
Utilizes both half-cycles of input a.c. voltage to produce the d.c. output

The ratio of DC power output to the applied input AC power is known as rectifier
efficiency
Rectifier efficiency,
 HALF-WAVE RECTIFIER
Consists of a single diode in series with a load resistor,
supplied from a 50 Hz. a.c. supply.
Working considers positive and negative half cycles of
the ac input voltage separately. Rectifier conducts
current only during the positive half-cycles of input
a.c. supply
The negative half-cycles of a.c. supply are suppressed
i.e. during negative half-cycles, no current is
conducted and hence no voltage appears across the
load
 HALF-WAVE RECTIFIER
Half-Wave Rectifier: Output Frequency
The output frequency of a half-wave rectifier is
equal to the input frequency
The a.c. input voltage repeats the same wave
pattern over 0° – 360°, 360° – 720° and so on
when input AC completes one cycle, the output
halfwave rectified wave also completes one cycle.
i.e fin = fout
 HALF-WAVE RECTIFIER
Average Values of Output Voltage and Load current
Let v = Vm sin : Appears at the secondary side of
transformer ie the instantaneous value of the sinusoidal a.c.
input voltage
Vm=maximum value of the input voltage
Vdc=average or dc value of output voltage
Vdc=
Im=maximum value of the diode current or load current
Idc= average or d.c. value of load current
Half-Wave Rectifier: Efficiency
AC power input:
Peak inverse voltage in a half wave rectifier
Negative half cycle of ac input voltage, does not conduct
No current in the circuit, no drop across the load
Peak reverse voltage = peak of the negative alternation of input
cycle
i.e. Peak inverse voltage of a diode in a half wave rectifier
RIPPLE FACTOR
Ratio of rms value of ac component to the ac
component in the rectifier output is known as
ripple factor.

The ripple factor is important in deciding the

effectiveness of a rectifier. The smaller the ripple
factor, the lesser the effective ac component and
hence more effective is the rectifier.
RIPPLE FACTOR
=

Dividing by
RIPPLE FACTOR FOR HALF
WAVE RECTIFIER
Example:
The applied input a.c. power to a half wave
rectifier is 100 watts. The dc output power
obtained is 40 watts.
What is the rectification efficiency?
What happens to the remaining 60 watts?
Assume Load =1K and show that the efficiency of the rectifier
is 40.6%
Example:
A crystal diode having internal resistance
is used for half wave rectification. If the
applied voltage, and the load resistance
Find
1. , ,
2. ac power input and dc power output
3. dc output voltage
4. efficiency of rectification
HALF-WAVE RECTIFIER
Disadvantages :
1. The pulsating current in the load contains
alternating component whose basic
frequency is equal to the supply frequency.
Therefore, an elaborate filtering is required
to produce steady direct current.
2. The AC supply delivers power only half the
time. Therefore, the output is low.
3. Low efficiency
FULL WAVE RECTIFIER
current flows through the load in the same direction for
both half-cycles of input AC Voltage – unidirectional
current flow
Two diodes works alternately.
For the positive half cycle of input voltage, one diode
supplies current to the load and for the negative half-
cycle, the other diode does
Two circuits are commonly used for full-wave
rectification :
1. Centre-tap full-wave rectifier
2. Full-wave bridge rectifier
 CENTRE TAPPED FULL WAVE RECTIFIER
• Two diodes D1 and D2 connected to centre tapped
secondary winding, Centre tap on the secondary winding is
grounded.

• Input applied to primary winding of the transformer.

• Voltage between the centre tap and either end of the

secondary winding is half of the secondary voltage

• Diode D1 utilizes the AC voltage appearing across the +ve

half of secondary winding for rectification while diode D2
uses the lower half winding *operation*

• Current in the load RL is in the same direction for both half-

cycles of input a.c. voltage. Therefore, d.c. is obtained
across the load RL
 Peak inverse voltage in a centre
tapped full wave rectifier

• Diodes alternatively forward or reverse biased, maximum value of

reverse voltage the diode has to withstand is equal to the maximum
secondary voltage (2 )
• Anode of D1 is , anode of D2 is –
• Cathode of D1 is at same voltage as anode
since forward biased.
• Cathode of D2 also has the same voltage
• Therefore PIV across
• i.e. Peak inverse voltage across each diode,
CENTRE TAPPED FULL WAVE RECTIFIER
Advantages:
d.c. output voltage and load current values are twice as much as in half wave rectifiers
Ripple factor is much less than in half wave rectifiers
Efficiency is twice that of half wave rectifiers

Disadvantages
It is difficult to locate the centre tap on the secondary winding.
The d.c. output is small as each diode utilises only one-half of the transformer
secondary voltage.
The diodes used must have high peak inverse voltage.
expensive
FULL-WAVE BRIDGE RECTIFIER:

Eliminates the need for a centre tapped power transformer

It contains four diodes D1, D2, D3 and D4 connected to form bridge
The a.c. supply to be rectified is applied to the diagonally opposite ends of
the bridge through the transformer.
Between other two ends of the bridge, the load resistance RL is connected.
 FULL-WAVE BRIDGE
RECTIFIER:

*Operation*
FULL-WAVE BRIDGE RECTIFIER:
Average Values of Output Voltage and Load
current
The output voltage and load current are same as
for a centre tapped full wave rectifier.
Peak inverse voltage in a full wave Bridge rectifier

• Diodes respond to positive half cycle of the input

• D1 and D2 forward biased, shown as shorted points
• D3 and D4 reverse biased and have a maximum or peak
inverse voltage equal to the maximum secondary voltage.
• i.e. Peak inverse voltage of a diode in a full wave bridge
rectifier
FULL-WAVE BRIDGE RECTIFIER:

Advantages
The need for centre-tapped transformer is eliminated.
The output is twice that of the centre-tap circuit for the same secondary
voltage.
The PIV is one-half that of the centre-tap circuit (for same d.c. output).
Less costly transformer
Floating output terminals

Disadvantages
It requires four diodes.
Voltage drop in the internal resistance of the rectifying unit will be twice as
great as in the centre tap circuit.
 FULL WAVE RECTIFIER
Average Values of Output Voltage and Load
current
Let = Vm sin : Appears at the each half of the sec
winding ie the instantaneous value of the
sinusoidal voltage across each half of the sec wdg.

Vm=maximum value of voltage across each half of

the sec. wdg.
Vdc=average or dc value of output voltage
Im=maximum value of the diode current or load
current
Idc= average or d.c. value of load current
Vdc=

=
FULL-WAVE RECTIFIER :
EFFICIENCY
AC input power:
The a.c. input power is given by:

For a full wave rectified wave

Maximum efficiency = 81.2%

Efficiency
RIPPLE FACTOR FOR FULL
WAVE RECTIFIER
Example:
A full wave rectifier uses two diodes, the
internal resistance of each diode may be
assumed constant at 20Ω. The transformer
rms secondary voltage from centre tap to
each end of secondary is 50V and load
resistance is 980 Ω. Find :
1. The mean load current
2. The rms value of load current
Example:
The four diodes used in a bridge rectifier
circuit have forward resistance of 1 Ω and
infinite reverse resistance. The ac supply
voltage is 240 V rms and the load
resistance is 480 Ω. Calculate:
1. mean load current
2. power dissipated in each diode