FULL WAVE RECTIFIER

AIM
To construct a Full Wave bridge rectifier and show that the
(AC) alternating current is rectified into a direct current (DC).
 PRINCIPLE
 A very high input AC is supplied to the full wave rectifier
 .The step-down transformer in the full wave rectifier
circuit converts the high-voltage AC into low-voltage.
 The anode of the center-tapped diodes is connected to the
secondary winding of the transformer and to the load
resistor.
 During the positive half cycle of the AC, the top half of the
secondary winding or terminal 1 will become positive.
 While terminal two or the second half of the winding will
become negative and the center tap will be at zero
potential.
 At the time of the positive half cycle, the diode D1 is
forward biased and diode D2 is reverse biased. This is
because it is connected to the bottom of the secondary
winding.
 Hence, D1 will let the current flow, and D2 will block the
flow through it.
 In the case of a negative half cycle, the diode D1 is reverse
biased and the diode D2 is forward biased.
 This is because the top half of the secondary circuit
becomes negative, while the bottom half of it becomes
positive.
 Therefore, in a full wave rectifier, DC voltage is obtained
for both positive as well as negative half cycles.
 FULL WAVE RECTIFIER

A Full Wave Rectifier is a rectifier that converts the complete

cycle of an AC signal (alternating wave) into a pulsating DC
signal.
The basic difference between a half-wave rectifier and a full-
wave rectifier is that the half-wave rectifier uses only the half
wave of the input AC signal whereas the full-wave rectifiers use
the whole cycle of the alternating wave.
The lower efficiency of a half-wave rectifier can be overcome by
using a full-wave rectifier.
The process through which the conversion of AC to Voltage
signal takes place in a full wave rectifier is known as full wave
rectification.
 CONSTRUCTION
CONSTRUCTION OF CENTRE-TAPPED FULL WAVE RECTIFIER
A center tap rectifier is a two diode type rectifier and this
system consist of
 Centre-tapped Transformer
 Two Diodes
 Resistive Load
Centre-tapped Transformer: – It is a conventional type of
transformer except the secondary winding is split into two
equal parts.
This center tap rectifier voltage is divided into two equal and
opposite polarity, namely +Ve voltage (Va) and -Ve voltage
(Vb), and total voltage is V=Va + Vb.
CONSTRUCTION OF FULL WAVE BRIDGE RECTIFIERS
A bridge rectifier is a that type in which the four power diode
this circuit consist of stem consists of
 Four power diodes
 Resistive Load
We can mention the name of diode is A, B, C and D.
 WORKING
The input AC supplied to the full wave rectifier is very high. The
step-down transformer in the rectifier circuit converts the high
voltage AC into low voltage AC. The anode of the centre tapped
diodes is connected to the transformer’s secondary winding
and connected to the load resistor. During the positive half
cycle of the alternating current, the top half of the secondary
winding becomes positive while the second half of the
secondary winding becomes negative.

During the positive half cycle, diode D1 is forward biased as it is

connected to the top of the secondary winding while diode D2
is reverse biased as it is connected to the bottom of the
secondary winding. Due to this, diode D1 will conduct acting as
a short circuit and D2 will not conduct acting as an open circuit

During the negative half cycle, the diode D1 is reverse biased

and the diode D2 is forward biased because the top half of the
secondary circuit becomes negative and the bottom half of the
circuit becomes positive. Thus in a full wave rectifiers, DC
voltage is obtained for both positive and negative half cycle.
 APPLICATIONS
The applications of a full-wave rectifier include the following.

 This kind of rectifier is mainly used for identifying the

amplitude of the modulating radio signal.
 In electric welding, polarized DC voltage can be supplied
through a bridge rectifier
 The bridge rectifier circuit is used in a power supply circuit
for different applications because it can convert the
voltage from high AC to low DC.
 These rectifiers are used to provide the power supply to
the devices which function with DC voltage similar to LED
and Motor.
Thus, this is all about an overview of a full-wave rectifier,
circuit, working, characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, and
its applications
 ADVANTAGES
The advantages of a full-wave rectifier include the following.

 As compared with the half-wave, this circuit has more

efficiency
 This circuit uses both the cycles, so there is no loss within
the o/p power.
 As compared with a half-wave rectifier, the ripple factor of
this rectifier is less
 Once both the cycles employed in rectification then there
is not lost within the i/p voltage signal
 You can use four individual power diodes to make a full-
wave bridge, readymade bridge rectifier components are
available off-the-shelf in a range of different voltage and
current sizes that can be soldered directly into a PCB
circuit board or be connected by spade connectors.
 The full-wave bridge gives us a greater mean DC value with
less superimposed ripple while the output waveform is
twice that of the frequency of the input supply. Therefore
increase its average DC output level even higher by
connecting a suitable smoothing capacitor across the
output of the bridge circuit.
 The advantages of a full-wave bridge rectifier are that it
has a smaller AC ripple value for a given load and a smaller
reservoir or smoothing capacitor than an equivalent half-
wave circuit. The fundamental frequency of the ripple
voltage is twice that of the AC supply frequency 100Hz
where for the half-wave it is exactly equal to the supply
frequency 50Hz.
 The amount of ripple voltage that is superimposed on top
of the DC supply voltage by the diodes can be virtually
eliminated by adding a much-improved π-filter to the
output terminals of the bridge. The low-pass filter consists
of two smoothing capacitors of the same value and a
choke or inductance across them to introduce a high
impedance path to the alternating ripple component.
 The alternative Is to use an off-shelf 3terminal voltage
regulator IC, such as an LM78xx where “xx” stands for the
output voltage rating for a positive output voltage or its
inverse equivalent the LM79xx for a negative output
voltage which can reduce the ripple by more than 70dB
Datasheet while delivering a constant output current of
over 1 amp.
 It Is the basic component to get D.C voltage for the
components which operate with D.C voltage. One can
describe its working as a full-wave rectifier project.
 It is the heart of the circuit and it uses the diode bridge.
Capacitors are used to get rid of ripples. Based on the
requirement of D.C voltage.
 DISADVANTAGES
The disadvantages of a full-wave rectifier include the following.

 It uses four diodes to design the circuit

 This circuit is not used whenever a small voltage is
necessary to be corrected because the connection of two
diodes can be done in series & provides a double voltage
drop because of their inside resistance.
 As compared with the half-wave, it is complicated.
 The peak inverse voltage of the diode is high, so these are
larger and costlier.
 This rectifier is complex to place the center tap over the
minor winding.
 The DC o/p is little because each diode uses simply one-
half of the secondary voltages of the transformer.
 PRECAUTION
 Connections should be verified before clicking run button.
 The resistance to be chosen should be in Kohm range.
 Best performance is being obtained within 50Hz to 1Mhz.
Cite this Simulator: vlab.amrita.edu,. ( 2011). DIODE – Full-
Wave Rectifier.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Class XII Physics text book, NCERT
• New Simplified Physics by S.L. Arora
• Wikipedia.com
• Google Search