A NOTE ON FOURIER SERIES OF HALF WAVE RECTIFIER,

FULL WAVE RECTIFIER AND UNRECTIFIED SINE WAVE

Jambunatha Sethuraman*
Vinayaka Mission’s Kirupananda Variyar Engineering College
Salem Tamil Nadu India

ABSTRACT: There is always an inherent phase difference between a sinusoidal

input and output (response) for a linear passive causal system. This is explained in
detail and even in the Fourier series of a periodic ‘causal’ function, this principle can
be elegantly used with profit and better understanding. Several illustrations are give
in support of this novel idea. There need not be a special section for Fourier
cosine/sine transforms as this approach covers them also.

sethuswami80@gmail.com
INTRODUCTION: 𝑓(𝑥) is a periodic function with period 2𝐿. It can be expended
as a Fourier series in the interval – 𝐿 < 𝑥 < 𝐿:

𝑎0 𝑛𝜋𝑥 𝑛𝜋𝑥
𝑓(𝑥) = + ∑∞
𝑛=1 (𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑠 + 𝑏𝑛 𝑠𝑖𝑛 ). (1)
2 𝐿 𝐿

𝐼𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒 spanned by the basic set of orthogonal functions

𝑛𝜋𝑥 𝑛𝜋𝑥
{𝑠𝑖𝑛 , 𝑐𝑜𝑠 } , 𝑛 = 0,1, 2, 3, … the function receives the co-ordinates
𝐿 𝐿
{𝑎0 , 𝑎𝑛 , 𝑏𝑛 }. Each sinusoidal wave has angular frequency 𝜔𝑛 =
𝑛𝜋 𝑛 1
𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑓𝑛 = 2𝐿. The fundamental frequency 𝑓1 = 2𝐿. The set of Fourier
𝐿
coefficients has (2𝑛 + 1) entities with 𝑛 → ∞ [1].

𝑥 Time 𝑡 Space 𝑥
𝑓𝑛 Temporal frequency Spatial frequency

𝟏 𝑳 𝒏𝝅𝒙
𝒂𝒏 = ∫ 𝒇(𝒙)𝒄𝒐𝒔 𝒅𝒙,
𝟐𝑳 −𝑳 𝑳

𝟏 𝑳 𝒏𝝅𝒙
𝒃𝒏 = ∫ 𝒇(𝒙)𝒔𝒊𝒏 𝒅𝒙,
𝟐𝑳 −𝑳 𝑳

𝟏 𝑳
𝒂𝟎 = 𝑳 ∫−𝑳 𝒇(𝒙)𝒅𝒙, (2)

Half-wave rectifier output wave form and its Fourier series

𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜔0 𝑡 0≤𝑡≤𝑇
𝑓(𝑡) = { .
0 −𝑇 ≤𝑡 ≤0

𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑛𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑑𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑧𝑒𝑟𝑜 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒. The
coefficients are evaluated as

𝐴 2𝐴 1 1 1 𝐴
𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜔0 𝑡 = − ( 𝑐𝑜𝑠2𝜔0 𝑡 + 𝑐𝑜𝑠4𝜔0 𝑡 + 𝑐𝑜𝑠6𝜔0 𝑡 + ⋯ ) + 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜔0 𝑡,
𝜋 𝜋 1.3 3.5 5.7 2

𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛. It is convenient to write the coefficients as

𝑎0 𝐴 2𝐴 𝐴
= 𝜋 , 𝑎𝑛 = (−)𝑛+1 𝜋(𝑛2 −1) , 𝑛 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛; 𝑏1 = 2 , 𝑏2 = 𝑏3 = ⋯ . = 0. Note that there
2
is only one coefficient which survives in sine series, namely 𝑏1 . all the other
coefficients vanish. It is interesting. Why it is so, will be clear later. See Fig. 1.

𝑭𝒊𝒈. 𝟏: 𝐹𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑓 −

𝑤𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑟. 𝐴𝑙𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠
𝑎0 , 𝑎𝑛 (𝑛 > 0)𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑏𝑛 (𝑛 > 0)𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡. A scale factor of 2 is due to doubling the
function in the period.

𝑭𝒖𝒍𝒍 − 𝒘𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒓: The wave form can be represented as

𝑓(𝑡) = 𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜔0 |𝑡| − 𝑇 ≤ 𝑡 ≤ 𝑇.

𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑 𝑖𝑠 2𝑇. For the full-wave rectifier the Fourier coefficients are given by
𝑎0 2𝐴 4𝐴
= , 𝑎𝑛 = (−)𝑛+1 𝜋(𝑛2 −1) , 𝑛 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛; 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑛 𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏1 .
2 𝜋
𝑆𝑒𝑒 𝐹𝑖𝑔. 2 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑤.
 𝑭𝒊𝒈. 𝟐: 𝐹𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙 − 𝑤𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑟.
𝑁𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑏𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑧𝑒𝑟𝑜. 𝑂𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑎0 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑. 𝐴 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 2
is due to doubling the existence of the function.

𝑼𝒏𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒅 sine wave: This is a pure sine wave given by

𝐴𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜔0 𝑡 − 𝑇 ≤ 𝑡 ≤ 𝑇.

𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐹𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑟 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎0 = 0,

𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑧𝑒𝑟𝑜𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒃𝒏 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡, namely
𝑏1
𝒃𝟏 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒔 𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒐 𝑨 . 𝑏1 = 2𝐴, 𝑏2 = 𝑏3 = ⋯ . = 0. = 𝐴.
2

This is expected since it is a pure sine wave and has only one Fourier component,
viz., 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜔0 𝑡 and hence only 𝑏1 contributes. Again a factor 2 is present due to
‘doubling’ the function in the period. See Fig. 3.
𝑭𝒊𝒈. 𝟑: 𝐴 𝑝𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑜𝑑𝑑 𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑓 𝑤𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑒𝑟.
𝐼𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑏1 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑛 (𝑛 > 1)𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ.
𝐴𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛 𝑎 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑑𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑.

The assertion is the the half-wave rectifier contains the coefficients of full-wave
rectifier and (unrectified) pure sine wave. This is interesting. A closer analysis
shows that full-wave rectifier and pure sine wave are respectively even and odd
extensions of half-wave rectifier! If half-wave rectifier is extended as an even
function (full-wave rectifier) only the cosine coefficients survive and sine
coefficients (odd) vanish. A factor 2 arises due to the period is doubled. If the half-
wave rectifier is extended as an odd function, i.e., pure sine wave only the odd sine
coefficients survive and all even coefficients vanish. This is an important concept
and can be applied to all so called Fourier sine/cosine series. In both extensions, a
factor 2 arises due to the function is doubled in the period.

REDUNDANT EXERCISES: It is not necessary to teach Fourier sine /cosine series and
they are redundant in the sense that they are special cases of Fourier series of a
causal periodic function.

Our approach is further strengthened by the following exercise: See. Fig. 4.

 Fig. 4.
1
A rectangle periodic function with ‘duty cycle’ 50% has only 𝑎0 (= 2) 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡

𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑎𝑛 > 0 𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ. 𝑏𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡.

When extended as an odd function the . 𝑏𝑛 are simply doubled. When extended as
an even function, it becomes a continuous straight line with constant value 1. Hence
𝑎0
= 1 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎0 = 2. There is consistency in this approach. It is well-known that a
2
constant function has only ‘dc’ term as there is no undulation or change in the
function. In Fourier analysis, it is sometimes regarded as ‘useless’ term having no
information; but it is not so. Its role is important and serves as a ‘canvas for
painting’. The next illustration with a causal triangle function is also self evident and
proves beyond doubt our assertion. See. Fig. 5.
 Fig. 5.
A function is said to be causal if it is zero for negative range. For example the
1 𝑥>0
1
Heaviside function is causal :𝐻(𝑥) = { 2 𝑥 = 0. (3)
0 𝑥<0

Exponential function used to describe radioactivity is also causal.

−𝜆𝑡
𝑓(𝑥) = {𝑁0 𝑒 . (4)
0

Half wave rectifier is causal because for negative duration of the period, the wave is
zero.

CAUSALITY AND QUADRATURE RESPONSE: One might have noticed

that when a cosine periodic force is acting on a damped harmonic
oscillator , in the response (displacement) there is a component
proportional to cosine periodic force and also a component of
displacement proportional to sine of the periodic force! This is surprising
as no sine periodic force was applied. Yet the system responds as if a sine
periodic force were also applied. This displacement is said to be ‘in
quadrature’ response and that proportional to cosine force is said to be
‘in phase’ response. The differential equation of a damped harmonic
oscillator (DSHO) is [5, 6]

𝑑2 𝑥(𝑡) 𝑑𝑥(𝑡) 𝐶𝛿(𝑡) 𝑡>0

+ 2𝛼 + 𝜔02 𝑥(𝑡) = { 𝜔0 > 𝛼, (5)
𝑑𝑡 2 𝑑𝑡 0 𝑡<0

where  0 is the natural frequency and 2 is the damping constant per

unit mass and C is the strength of the impulse. 𝑥(𝑡) is the displacement
and 𝑥̇ (𝑡) = 𝑣(𝑡) is the velocity of the particle. It can be shown that 𝐶 = 𝑣0
[2]. The velocity is given by [2]

𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜔0 𝑡
𝑣0 𝑒 −𝛼𝑡 (𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜔0 𝑡 − 𝛼 ) 𝑡>0
𝑣(𝑡) = { 𝜔0 . (6)
0 𝑡<0

where 𝜔0 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐷𝑆𝐻𝑂. If a periodic force

𝑓0 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜔𝑡 is applied from time 𝑡 ≥ 0, where 𝑓0 is the force per unit mass.

The velocity is now given by

 𝑓0 𝜔02
2 [𝛼𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜔𝑡 − (𝜔 − ) 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜔𝑡] 𝑡>0
𝜔2 𝜔
𝑉(𝑡) = { [(𝜔− 0 ) +𝛼2 ] , (7)
𝜔

0 𝑡<0

𝑇ℎ𝑢𝑠 there are two components for the velocity: first ‘in-phase’
𝛼
component 2 2
𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜔𝑡 and ‘in-quadrature’ component
𝜔
[(𝜔− 0 ) +𝛼2 ]
𝜔

𝜔2
(𝜔− 0 )
𝜔
2 2
𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜔𝑡. It is surprising that there is a response proportional to
𝜔
(𝜔− 0 ) +𝛼2
𝜔

𝑠𝑖𝑛𝜔𝑡 and that oscillating force was not applied. Nevertheless the
response has that component also. A causal linear passive system always
produces an impulse response with both ‘in-phase’ and ‘in-quadrature’
response. We can write eq. (.) as

𝑉(𝑡) = 𝐴(𝜔)cos(𝜔𝑡 + 𝜙(𝜔))

𝜔 2
(𝜔− 0 )
𝑓0 𝜔
where 𝐴(𝜔) = and tan 𝜙(𝜔) = . (8)
2 𝛼
𝜔2
√(𝜔− 0 ) +𝛼2
𝜔

The in-phase and in quadrature responses are not independent of each

other as the the principle of causality ascertains that that for a physically
realizable system it is not possible to give an arbitrary characteristic for
the in-phase response without setting up a definite in-quadrature
response and hence a definite phase characteristic. For more information
the reader is referred to ref. 2 and 3 in Academia.edu.

References:

1. E. Butkov, Mathematical physics, Addison-Wesley Pub Co (Reading), 1968, Ch. 7

2. Jambunatha Sethuraman, “A convolution approach to damped harmonic
oscillator’,
https://www.academia.edu/5385350/CONVOLUTION_APPROACH_TO_DAMPED
_HARMONIC_OSCILLATOR
3. Jambunatha Sethuraman, ‘Hilbert transform, Causality, analyticity, and
Fraunhofer diffraction’,
https://www.academia.edu/5453386/Causality_Analyticity_Hilbert_transform_
and_Fraunhofer_diffraction