19EEE111 : Electrical and Electronic

Engineering (3-0-0-3)

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 Outline

• What is rectifier?
• Half wave rectifiers
• Full wave rectifiers

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 What is Rectifier?
• When diode included in rectification process it is referred to as
rectifier.
• Rectifies the AC signals to provide DC output.
• It may be single phase or three phase AC input, but output is DC

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 Half wave rectifier
Introduction

• One half of the input voltage waveform is

allowed to pass through the circuit and
available at the output terminal.
• Assume an Ideal diode with no voltage drop in
forward bias.

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 Half wave rectifier
Introduction

• Where Vi is the input voltage and Vo is the

output voltage.
• Polarities of source voltage, diode voltage drop
and output voltage are marked in the figure.

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 Half wave rectifier
Introduction

• Input voltage waveform is shown in figure in

which time period is T and average value is
zero.

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 Half wave rectifier

• In the positive half cycle (0 to T/2) the source

voltage is positive which gives forward bias across
the diode.
• The diode is conducting (ideal diode - closed
switch) and polarity is marked .

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 Half wave rectifier

• Due to the shorted path by diode, the output voltage

is exact replication of input voltage during the
positive half cycle.

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 Half wave rectifier

• The output voltage will appear as shown in figure.

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 Half wave rectifier

• In the negative half cycle (T/2 to T) the source

voltage is negative which gives reverse bias across
the diode.
• The diode is not conducting (ideal diode - open
switch) and polarity is marked .

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 Half wave rectifier

• Due to the opened path by diode, the output voltage

is zero during the negative half cycle.

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 Half wave rectifier

• The output voltage will appear as shown in figure.

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 Half wave rectifier

Calculating Vdc( for Ideal diode)

• The output signal Vo now has a net positive area
above the axis over a full period and an average
value determined by Vdc=0.318Vm
• The process of removing one-half the input signal
to establish a dc level is called half-wave
rectification

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 Half wave rectifier

Calculating Vdc( for non-Ideal diode)

• The effect of using a silicon diode with VT = 0.7V
is demonstrated in Fig for the forward-bias region.

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 Half wave rectifier

Calculating Vdc( for non-Ideal diode)

• The effect of using a silicon diode with VT = 0.7V
is demonstrated in Fig for the forward-bias region.

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 Half wave rectifier

Calculating Vdc( for non-Ideal diode)

• The applied signal must now be at least 0.7 V before the
diode can turn -on.
• For levels of Vi< 0.7 V, the diode is still in an open circuit
state and Vo shown in the same figure.
• When conducting, the difference between Vo and Vi, is a
fixed level of VT = 0.7 V and V0=Vi-VT as shown in the Fig
• The net effect is a reduction in area above the axis, which
naturally reduces the resulting dc voltage level.
• For situations where Vm>>VT, Equation below can be
applied to determine the average value with a relatively high
level of accuracy. Vdc= 0.318(Vm -VT)
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 Half wave rectifier

PIV
• PIV - peak inverse voltage
• PRV - peak reverse voltage
• Very important in the design of rectifier system
• Def- : it is the voltage rating that must not be
exceeded in the reverse-bias region or the diode
will enter the Zener avalanche region.
• It displays the reverse-biased diode with maximum
applied voltage.
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 Half wave rectifier

PIV
• Applying Kirchhoff’s, voltage law, it is fairly obvious
that the PIV rating of the diode must equal or exceed
the peak value of the applied voltage.
• Therefore, PIV should be Vm for half wave rectifier.
• Circuit Diagram

Disadvantage : The DC level obtained is less and this can be improved

to 100% using a process called full19EEE111
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wave rectification. 18
 Full wave rectifier
Working principle

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 Full wave rectifier
Working principle

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 Full wave rectifier
Working principle

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 Full wave rectifier
Working principle

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 Full wave rectifier

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 Full wave rectifier

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 Zener Diode

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 Zener diode- Introduction

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Construction of Zener

• Zener diodes are designed to operate in reverse breakdown.

Two types of reverse breakdown in a zener diode are
avalanche and zener.
• The avalanche break down occurs in both PN diode and zener
diodes at a sufficiently high reverse voltage. Zener breakdown
occurs in a zener diode at low reverse voltages.
• A zener diode is heavily doped to reduced the breakdown
voltage. This causes a very thin depletion region. The zener
diodes breakdown characteristics are determined by the doping
process.

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 Working of Zener
• Working of Zener A zener diode is much like a normal diode. The
exception being is that it is placed in the circuit in reverse bias and
operates in reverse breakdown. This typical characteristic curve
illustrates the operating range for a zener. Note that it’s forward
characteristics are just like a normal diode.

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 Breakdown Characteristics
• Figure shows the reverse portion of a zener diode’s characteristic
curve. As the reverse voltage (VR) is increased, the reverse current
(IR) remains extremely small up to the “knee” of the curve. The
reverse current is also called the zener current, IZ. At this point, the
breakdown effect begins; the internal zener resistance, also called
zener impedance (ZZ), begins to decrease as reverse current
increases rapidly.

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 How Zener region is formed?
There are two types of breakdowns for a Zener
Diode:
• Avalanche Breakdown
• Zener Breakdown

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 Avalanche Breakdown

• As the voltage across the diode increases in RB region, the velocity

of the minority carriers responsible for the reverse saturation current
Is will also increase. As the velocity increases, the valance
electrons absorbs sufficient energy to leave the parent atom and
they collide with other atoms & creates more free electrons
which aids the ionization process to increase Is, which finally results
in Avalanche Breakdown.
• This break down region can be brought closer to the vertical axis by
increasing the doping levels of P and n type materials. An increase
in doping produces an increase in number of impurities, will
decrease the Zener potential.
• Generally avalanche breakdown occur in Zener diodes with Zener
voltage greater than 6V
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 Zener Breakdown

• Zener breakdown takes place in heavily doped diodes. This occurs at

low levels of reverse voltage and will contribute to sharpe change in
characteristics. When RB is applied a strong electric field is
established at the junction and this can disrupt the bonding force
within the atom and generate free carriers.
• Zener breakdown is significant at lower levels of Vz. The maximum
reverse bias potential that can be applied before entering the Zener
region is the peak inverse voltage PIV or peak reverse voltage PRV.
• Zener diodes a are available having Zener potential of 1.8 to 200V
with power ratings from 1/4 to 50W.

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Equivalent circuit and Analysis of Zener diode

Complete and approximate equivalent circuit

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 Example 1

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 Example 2

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