n such a d.c. supply is required, the mains a.c. supply is rectified by using crystal diodes.

ollowing two rectifier circuits can be used:

alf-wave rectifier (ii) Full-wave rectifier

-Wave Rectifier
In half-wave rectification, the rectifier conducts current only during the positive half-
cycles of input a.c. supply.
The negative half-cycles of a.c. supply are suppressed ie. during negative half-cycles,
no current is conducted and hence no voltage appears across the load.
Therefore, current always flows in one direction (i.e. d.c.) through the load though
after every half-cycle.

A.C.
JPPLY in

AA

AA AAA. (ii)
()
The a.c. supply to be rectified is applied in series with the diode and load resistance
RL. Generally, a.c. supply is given through a transformer.
The use of transformer permits two advantages. Firstly, it allows us to sep up or step
down the ac. input voltage as the situation demands.

Secodly, the transformer isolates the rectifier circuit from power line and thus
reduces the risk of electric shock.
end becomes positive w.rt end
During the positive half-cycle of input a.c. voltage, A
B. This makes the diode forward biased and hence it conducts current.
During the half-cycle, end A is negative w.r.t. end B. Under this condition,
negative
the diode is reverse biased and it conducts no current. Therefore, current flows
voltage only; it is blocked
through the diode during positive half-cycles of input a.c.

during the negative half-cycles.

In this way, current flows through load RL always in the same direction. Hence dc.

output is obtained across R

 I t may be noted that output across the load is pulsating d.c. These pulsations in the
output are further smoothened with the help of fiter circuits.

Disadvantages:
(i) The pulsating current in the load contains alternating component whose basic
frequency is equal to the supply frequency. Therefore, an elaborate filtering is
required to produce steady direct current.
(ii) The a.c. supply delivers power only half the time. Therefore, the output is low.

Eiciency of Half-Wave Rectifier:

The ratio of d.c. power output to the applied input a.c. power is known as rectifier efficiency
i.e

Rectifier efficiency, n d.c. power output

Input a.c. powerT

d.e. power The output curent is pulsating direct curent. Therefore, in order to find d.c. power,
average curent has to be found out.

de
2 (+ R sin6
y+R* +R

d.c.power, P xR () xa, ..)

a.c. power input : The a.c. power input is given by :

P +R)
For a half-wave rectified wave, m 2

Rectifier efficiency = d.C. output power / x R,_

a.c. input power
/2 +R)
0.406 R- 0.406
+R 1

The eficiency will be maximum if r,is negligible as compared to R.

M a x . rectifier efficiency = 40.6%

This shows that in half-wave rectification, a maximum of40.6% ofa.c. power is converted into d.c.
power.
 D
oul

A.C. O *
RL
SUPPLY w

The circuit employs two diodes Di and D; as shown in Fig.

A
centre tapped secondary winding AB is used with two diodes connected so that
each uses one half-cycle of input a.c. voltage.
In other words, diode Di utilises the a.c. voltage appearing across the upper half
of winding for rectification while diode D2
OA) secondary
winding OB. Operation.
uses the lower half

During the positive half-cycle of secondary voltage, the end A of the secondary
winding becomes positive and end B negative. This makes the diode Di forward
biased and diode D2 reverse biased.
diode Di conducts while diode D, does not. The conventional current
Therefore,
flow is through diode Di, load resistor RL and the upper half of secondary winding as
shown by the dotted arrows.
During the negative half-cycle, end A of the secondary winding becomes negative
and end B positive. Therefore, diode Da conducts while diode D, does not. The
conventional current flow is through diode D2, load RL and lower half winding as
shown by solid arrows.
I t may be seen that current in the load RL is in the same direction for both half-cycles
of input a.c. voltage. Therefore, d.c. is obtained across the load RL.

Peak inverse voltage.

 D
V.m

RL
w

D2
Suppose Vm is the maximum voltage across the half secondary winding.
At this instant, diode Di is conducting while diode D2 is non-conducting. Therefore,
whole of the secondary voltage appears across the non-conducting diode.
Consequently, the peak inverse voltage is twice the maximum voltage across the half
secondary winding
ie. PIV = 2 Vm

Disadvantages
It is difficult to locate the centre tap on the secondary winding.
(i) The d.c. output is small as each diode utilises only one-half of the transformer
secondary voltage.
(ii) The diodes used must have high peak inverse voltage.

Full-Wave Bridge Rectifier

T h e need for a centre tapped power transformer is eliminated in the bridge rectifier.
It contains four diodes DI, D2, D3 and D4 comnected to form bridge as shown in Fig.
The a.c. supply to be rectified is applied to the diagonally opposite ends of the bridge
through the transformer.
Between other two ends of the bridge, the load resistance RL is connected.

im
SECONDARY
D DA VOLTAGE
A.C.
SUPPLY
R ou

M.
0jD,D, DD,DP,
During the positive half-cycle of secondary voltage, the end P of the secondary
winding becomes positive and end Q negative.
 This makes diodes DI and D3 forward biased while diodes D2 and D4 are reverse
biased. Therefore, only diodes D1 and D3 conduct. These two diodes will be in
series through the load RL as shown in Fig.
It may be seen that current flows from A to B through the load RL.
During the negative half-cycle of secondary voltage, end P becomes negative and end
Q positive. This makes diodes D2 and D4 forward biased whereas diodes DI and D3
are reverse biased.
Therefore, only diodes D2 and D4 conduct. These two diodes will be in series
through the load RL as shown in Fig
I t may be seen that again curent flows from A to B through the load ie. in the same
direction as for the positive half-cycle. Therefore, d.c. output is obtained across load
RL.

Advantages
The need for centre-tapped transformer is eliminated.
i) The output is twice that of the centre-tap circuit for the same secondary voltage.
Gi) The PIV is one-half that of the centre-tap circuit (for same d.c. output).

Disadvantages
It requires four diodes.

Eiciency of Ful-Wave Rectifier

.Let v=Vm sin 0 be the a.c. voltage to be rectified.

L e t rf and RL be the diode resistance and load resistance respectively.
Obviously, the rectifier will conduct current through the load in the same direction
for both half-cycles of input a.c. voltage. The instantaneous current i is given by:
VP sin
i R tR
d.c. output power. The output current is pulsating direct current. Therefore, in order to find
the d.c. power, average current has to be found out.
 d.e. power output, Pa =

xRL. - (2
a.c.
input power. The a.c.
input power is given by
P +R)
For a full-wave rectified wave, we have,

-(ii)
. Full-wave rectification efficiency is

(2IR
-
0.812 R = 0.8122

The efficiency will be maximum ifr,is negligible as compared to Rz.

Maximum efficiency 81.2%
This is double the efficiency due to half-wave rectifier. Therefore, a full-wave rectifier is twiceas
effective as a half-wave rectifier.

Ripple Factor
The output of a rectifier consists ofa d.c. component and an a.c. component (also
known as ripple).
The a.c. component is undesirable and accounts for the pusations in the rectifier
Output.
T h e eftectiveness of a rectifier depends upon the magnitude of a.c. component in the
output; the smaller this component, the more effective is the rectifier.
The ratio of r.m.s. value of a.c. component to the d.c. component in the rectifier
output is known as ripple factor ie.

Ripple factor = r.m.s. value of a.c component=a

value of d.c. component
Therefore, ripple factor is very important in deciding the effectiveness of a rectifier.
The smaller the ripple factor, the lesser the effective a.c. component and hence more
effective is the rectifier.

Ripplefactor - -

- -1

For half-wave rectification

 No. Particulars Hall-wave Centre-ap Bridge type
No. of diodes 4

2 Transformer necessary yes no

Max. efficiency 40.6% 81.2% 81.2%

Ripple factor 1.21 0.48 0.48
Output frequency 2Jn 2
Peak inverse voltage 2 Vm V

Problem: An ac. supply of 230 V is applied to a half-wave rectifier circuit through a

transformer of tum ratio 10:1. Find (Gi) the output d.c. voltage and (i) the peak inverse
voltage. Assume the diode to be ideal.

Solution. DEAL
Primary to secondary turns is

1 10
N 230 V
R.M.S. primary voltage
230 V
Max. primary voltage is

VPm(2)xrms.primaryvoltage
-(2)x230-3253V
Max. secondary voltage is

325.3x32.53
10
v

Y x R, =
m =55- 10.36 v
the diode is reverse biased and hence conducts
(i)During the negative half-cycle of a.c. supply,
across the diode.
no current. Therefore, the maximum secondary voltage appears

P e a k inverse voltage 32.53 V

20 M is used for half-wave

Problem: A crystal diode having internal resistance rr=
resistance R= 800 2, find: i)
rectification. If the applied voltagev 50 sin otand load
d.c. output voltage (iv) efficiency
In, ldc. Ims (ii) a.c. power input and d.c. power output (i)
of rectification.
 0 . Watt
1000(20-

de.power output raxR 1000x800 -

0.301 watt

(ii) dc. output voltage a R 19.4 mA x 8002 = 15.52 volts

(iv) Efficiency of rectification = x100= 39.5%

0.763

Problem: In the centre-tap circuitFind:

shown in Fig, the diodes are assumed to be ideal ie.
aving zero internal resistance.
rectification efficiency.
() dc. output voltage(i) peak inverse voltage (ii)

IDEAL
5:1

230 V

3 100 2
Primary to secondary turns, N1/N2 = 5

RM.S. primary voltage= 230V IDEAL

R.MS. secondary voltage
230 x(1/5)=46V
Maximum voltage across secondary 230 V
- 46x2 =65V

Maximum voltage across half

100
secondary winding 1s
IDEAL
V= 65/2 32.5 V
Average curent, Flg. 6.31
2X52 = 0.207 A
100

dc.output voltage, V laxRL 0.207x 100 20.7V

= - =

(i) The peak inverse voltage is equal to the maximum secondary voltage, ie.
PIV 65 V

(i) Rectification efficiency = 51

Since r 0

Rectification efficiency =
81.2 %

Problem: The four diodes used in a bridge rectifier circuit have forward resistances which
may be considered constant at 1 2 and infinite reverse resistance. The alternating supply
voltage is 240 V r.m.s. and load resistance is 480 2. Calculate (i) mean load current and (i)
power dissipated in each diode.
Solution.

Max. a.c. votage, V = 240 x2 V

A t any instant in the bridge rectifer, two diodes in series are conducting Therefore, total
circuit resistance =2 r+R¢

Max. load curent, - 0.7A

Mean load curent, I = = 4 0 = 045 A

(i) Since each diode conducts only half a cycle, diode r.m.s. current is
/2 0.7/2 = 0.35 A

Power dissipated ineach diode nXr, =

(0.35) x 1 =0.123 W