CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the work relating to the project has

been carried out by Harsh Verma of Class 12 (M1) of
Sant Atulanand Convent School under my supervision
and guidance of Mr. S.N. Mishra, I am satisfied by the
work done by him.

The project fulfils the basic ordinances governing the

submission of project laid down by C.B.S.E.

Date:

Teacher’ Signature:

Examiner’s Signature:
 Acknowledgement
I am very grateful to our physics teacher Mr. S.N. Mishra
who has stimulated my idea for this project as well as for
their valuable guidance and inspiration to me in
accomplishing this project work.

I am thankful to all the people and my friends who

helped me in the completion of this project.
 Content

 Introduction

 Basic Half Wave Rectifier Circuit

 Working of a Half Wave rectifier

 Power supply specification

 Advantages and Disadvantages of Half Wave

Rectifier

 Half Wave Rectifier diode requirements –

 Forward Current
 Peak inverse Voltage
 Introduction

When a single rectifier unit is placed in series with the

load across AC supply, it converts alternating voltage
into unidirectional pulsating voltage, using one half of
the applied voltage, the other half cycle being suppressed
because the conduction is only in one direction. Unless
there is a battery or inductor in the circuit, the current
will be zero, therefore for half the time this is called half
wave rectifier. As we know, electrode is an electric device
consisting of two elements namely cathode and anode.
Since in a diode electron can flow only in one direction
i.e., from anode to cathode hence, providing the
unilateral conduction is important for rectifier. This is
true for diodes of all type vacuum, gas filled, crystal,
semiconductor or metallic (copper oxides and selenium
types). Semiconductor diode because of their inherent
advantage they are usually used as the rectifying device.
 Half wave rectifier circuit

A half wave rectifier circuit contains mainly a single

diode to pass current only in half of the cycle. A
transformer may also be used for powering circuits in
any way. Output of a rectifier is not a constant DC
voltage, it is a pulsating DC voltage with AC ripples. In
real life application we need a smooth wave forms or
constant voltage to impact the reliability of an electronic
device this is achieved by using a filter across the diode
for instance resistor capacitor coupled filter.

The circuit diagram below shows the basic half wave

rectifier :-
 Working of a half wave rectifier
A diode is connected in series with the secondary of step-
down transformer load resistance and capacitor. The
primary of the transformer is being connected to AC
mains supply.

The voltage across the secondary winding changes

polarity after every half cycle of input wave. During the
positive half cycle of the input AC voltage i.e., when the
upper end of the secondary winding is positive with
respect to its lower end, the diode is forward biased and
therefore conduct electricity.

The forward resistance of the diode is assumed to be

zero. The input voltage during the positive half cycle is
directly applied to the load resistance, making its upper
end positive with respect to its lower end. The wave forms
of the output current and output voltage are of the same
shape as that of the input AC voltage.

During the negative half of the cycles of the input AC

voltage i.e., when the secondary winding is positive with
respect to its upper side, diode is reverse biased and so
does not conduct. Thus, during the negative half cycles
of the input AC voltage, the current through the voltage
across the load remains zero. The reverse current, being
very small in magnitude, is neglected. Thus, for the
negative half cycles no power is delivered to the load.

Thus, the output voltage develops across load resistor RL

is a series of positive half cycle of alternating voltage
levels. It is obvious from the figure that the output is not
a steady DC, but only a pulsating DC wave. To make the
output wave smooth and useful in a DC power supply,
we have a filter across the load. Since only half cycles of
the input wave are used, it is called a half wave rectifier.

Power supply specification of a rectifier

The most important characteristics which required to be

specified for a power supply are

1. The required output DC voltage.

2. The average and the speak for current in the diode.

3. The peak inverse voltage of diode.

 4. The regulator.

5. The ripple factor.

Advantages and disadvantages of a half

wave rectifier

ADVANTAGES: It is Cheap, Simple and easy to construct

because of the low number of component involved,
straight forward design.

DISADVANTAGES:
 1. The power output and therefore rectification
efficiency is quite low This is due to the fact that the
power is only delivered during one half cycle of the
input AC.

2. Transformer utilization factor is low.

3. DC saturation of transformer core resulting in

magnetizing current and hysteresis laws and
generation of harmonics.

Half wave rectifier diode requirement

When designing a halfway rectifier circuit, it is necessary

to ensure that the diode is capable of providing the
required performance. Some of the parameters that may
need to be taken are detailed below:

1. Forward current: This is necessary that the diode is

able to handle the levels of average current and the
 peak current flowing through it in a half wave
rectifier circuit. The circuit will peak as a result of
the capacitor smoothing circuit is in short burst
which are much higher than the average current.

2. Peak inverse voltage: The diode must be able to

withstand the peak reverse or inverse voltage that
appears across it. The peak inverse voltage rating of
diode should be at least two 2.83 times the RMS
value of the input. This is because the output is
nearly small by the input wave form With this
voltage on the output, the input wave form on the
blocked half of the cycle will fall and reach the peak
value at bottom of the crest 1.414 times the RMS.

As a general term applied to the semiconductor

diode peak reverse or the inverse voltage the
maximum voltage that the diode can withstand in
the reverse direction without breaking down if this
voltage is exceeded the diode may be destroyed.
Therefore their PIV rating must be higher.

Bibliography
WEBSITES:
 www.quora.com
  www.circuitstoday.com
 www.wikipedia.com

BOOKS:
 NCERT Physics book.

Special thanks
I heartily thank my physics teacher Mr. S.N. Mishra for
their inspiration, useful suggestion and all possible help
which has helped me to complete my project.
I am thankful to my classmates and my friends, who
helped me for completion of this activity and every
person who suggested me and helped me by any way.