Indian Institute of Technology Ropar

Electrical Engineering Department

Basic Electronics Lab (GE 108)

Lab exercise # 2

Title: To study rectifiers: HWR and FWR

Objective: 1) To construct a HWR and FWR rectifier circuits and analyse their outputs.
2) To analyse the rectifier outputs using a capacitor as a filter.

Components and equipments: A step-down transformer, 2PN junction diodes (1N 4007),
resistors (1K and 10K), Capacitor (100uF), Oscilloscope, Multimeters, Connecting wires,
Breadboard.

Introduction: Half-wave rectifier circuit is unsuitable to applications which need a "steady

and smooth" dc supply voltage. One method to improve on this is to use every half-cycle of
the input voltage instead of every other half-cycle. The circuit which allows us to do this is
called a Full-wave Rectifier. Here, unidirectional current flows in the output for both the
cycles of input signal and rectifies it. The rectification can be done either by a centre tap full
wave rectifier (using two diodes) or a full wave bridge rectifier (using four diodes).
In this experiment we will study ripple behaviour of HWR and FWR.
The ripple voltage i.e. Vr is given by Vr = [Vp/(f.RL.C)] where, Vp is peak output voltage,
RL is load resistance and C is filter capacitor.

Circuit Diagram :

Fig. 1 HWR if only upper-half of secondary is used and FWR if complete secondary is used
(Diode 1N 4007, Cap 100uF and Resistors 1K and 10K)

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Procedures:
i) Configure the half wave and full-wave rectifier circuit as shown in the circuit
diagram. Note down all the values of the components being used.

ii) Connect the primary side of the transformer to the a.c. Mains and secondary to the
input of the circuit.

iii) Feed the input and output to the oscilloscope

iv) Calculate the ripple factor and efficiency.

v) Connect the capacitor across the output for each load resistor. Measure the output
voltages once again and calculate the ripple factor.

Result: At the end of this lab exercise, one should be able to implement, analyse and
calculate parameters of full wave rectifier with and without capacitor.

1. For HWR :
Ripple voltage if R is 1K = ……………………. and 10 K= …………………………

2. For FWR :
Ripple voltage if R is 1K = ……………………. and 10 K= …………………………

Conclusion: To be written by students in record.

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Post-lab design questions:
1. When a 50Hz ac signal is fed to a rectifier, the ripple frequency of the output
voltage waveform for full bridge rectifier is
(a) 25 Hz (b) 50 Hz (c) 100 Hz (d)150 Hz
2. What is the PIV of a diode full wave bridge rectifier circuit?
3. What is the purpose of a filter in dc power supply?
4. For the figure shown below. Determine (a) the DC output voltage, (b) DC load
current, (c) the RMS value of the load current, (d) the DC power, (e) efficiency of
rectifier, (g) peak inverse voltage of each diode, and (h) output
frequency. Assume all diodes are ideal.

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