ELECTRONICS 1 ETY115C / ETA115D / ELC111T LA Makwange

Lesson 1: Filtering / Smoothing

I. Concept

♦ Sketch / diagram
♦ Charging and discharging of a capacitor

(1) Half wave

(2) Full wave

- Vpk (peak) across the load? … (Remains the same).

- VAvg (Vdc) across the load? …. (Changes when there is a smoothing capacitor.)
- *Ripple voltage (Vrpp) peak to peak … (The new output waveform across
the load. Hence the Vdc changes)

1
ELECTRONICS 1 ETY115C / ETA115D / ELC111T LA Makwange

Deriving the average voltage across the load.

Charge (Q):
The charge on a capacitor depends on the amount of current (I) flowing for a period time (t).

𝑸𝑸 = 𝑰𝑰𝑰𝑰 … (1) and 𝑸𝑸 = 𝑪𝑪𝑪𝑪 … (2)

Therefore 𝑪𝑪𝑪𝑪 = 𝑰𝑰𝑰𝑰 … equating (1) & (2)

𝑰𝑰𝑰𝑰
𝑽𝑽𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓 = 𝑪𝑪 … peak to peak ripple voltage (i)

𝑽𝑽𝒑𝒑𝒑𝒑𝒑𝒑
𝑽𝑽𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓 = … I from charging voltage Vpko across RL (ii)
𝒇𝒇𝒇𝒇𝑹𝑹𝑳𝑳 𝒙𝒙𝒙𝒙
𝟏𝟏
𝒕𝒕 = 𝒇𝒇
We can now use equation (ii) to determine the peak-peak ripple voltage, Vrpp.

𝑽𝑽𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓
Average voltage, 𝑽𝑽𝒂𝒂𝒂𝒂𝒂𝒂 will then be: 𝑽𝑽𝒂𝒂𝒂𝒂𝒂𝒂 = 𝑽𝑽𝒑𝒑𝒑𝒑𝒑𝒑 − (iii)
𝟐𝟐

𝑽𝑽𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓𝒓
Ripple factor, r: 𝒓𝒓 = (iv)
𝑽𝑽𝑫𝑫𝑫𝑫

The ripple factor indicates the effectiveness of the filter. A smaller ripple factor (r), means a
more effective filter with less ripple on the load.

Key:

 We can improve the average DC output of the rectifier while at the same time
reducing the AC variation of the rectified output by using smoothing capacitors to
filter the output waveform.
 Smoothing or reservoir capacitors connected in parallel with the load across the
output of the full wave bridge rectifier circuit increases the average DC output level
even higher as the capacitor acts like a storage device
 The smoothing capacitor converts the full-wave rippled output of the rectifier into a
more smooth DC output voltage. If we observe the circuit with different values of

2
ELECTRONICS 1 ETY115C / ETA115D / ELC111T LA Makwange
smoothing capacitor installed, we can see the effect it has on the rectified output
waveform.

 With full wave rectification the performance of the reservoir capacitor in removing
AC ripple is significantly better than with half wave, for the same size of reservoir
capacitor, the ripple is about half the amplitude of that in half wave supplies, because
in full wave circuits, discharge periods are shorter with the reservoir capacitor being
recharged at twice the frequency of the half wave design.

Design considerations
♦ The shorter the charging time of a capacitor, the larger current the diode must supply
to charge it.
♦ If the capacitor is very large, its voltage will hardly fall at all between charging
pulses; this will produce a very small amount of ripple, but require very short pulses
of much higher current to charge the reservoir capacitor.
♦ Both the input transformer and the rectifier diodes must be capable of supplying this
current. This means using a higher current rating for the diodes and the transformer
than would be necessary with a smaller reservoir capacitor.
♦ There is an advantage therefore in reducing the value of the reservoir capacitor,
thereby allowing an increase in the ripple present, but this can be effectively removed
by using a low pass filter and regulator stages between the reservoir capacitor and
the load.
♦ This effect of increasing reservoir size on diode and transformer current should be
born in mind during any servicing operations; replacing the reservoir capacitor with
a larger value than in the original design "to reduce mains hum" may seem like a
good idea, but could risk damaging the rectifier diode and/or the transformer.

Next:

Lesson 2: Class Exercise