Power Supply Filters and Capacitor Filter
A power supply filter ideally eliminates the fluctuations
in the output voltage of a half wave or full-wave rectifier
and produces a constant-level dc voltage. Filtering is
necessary because electronic circuits require a constant
source of dc voltage and current to provide power and
biasing for proper operation. Filters are implemented
with capacitors. Capacitor-Input Filter
A half-wave rectifier with a capacitor-input filter is
shown in Figure . During the positive first quarter-cycle
of the input, the diode is forward-biased, allowing the
capacitor to charge to within 0.7 V of the input peak, as
illustrated in Figure (a).
When the input begins to decrease below its peak, as
shown in part (b), the capacitor retains its charge and the
diode becomes reverse-biased because the cathode is
more positive than the anode. During the remaining part
of the cycle, the capacitor can
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discharge only through the load resistance at a rate
determined by the RLC time constant, which is
normally long compared to the period of the input.
(a) Initial charging of the capacitor (diode is forward-biased) happens only once when power is turned on
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Figure : Operation of a half-wave rectifier with a capacitor-input filter.
The current indicates charging or discharging of the capacitor.
Ripple Voltage
As you have seen, the capacitor quickly charges at
the beginning of a cycle and slowly discharges
through RL after the positive peak of the input
voltage (when the diode is reverse-biased). The
variation in the capacitor voltage due to the charging
and discharging is called the ripple voltage.
Generally, ripple is undesirable; thus, the smaller the
ripple, the better the filtering action, as illustrated in
Figure .
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Figure : Half-wave ripple voltage (blue line).
Ripple Factor
The ripple factor (r) is an indication of the
effectiveness of the filter and is defined as
where Vr(pp) is the peak-to-peak ripple voltage and
VDC is the dc (average) value of the filter’s output
voltage, as illustrated in Figure. The lower the ripple
factor, the better the filter. The ripple factor can be
lowered by increasing the value of the filter
capacitor or increasing the load resistance.
For a full-wave rectifier with a capacitor-input filter,
approximations for the peak-to-peak ripple voltage,
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Vr(pp), and the dc value of the filter output voltage,
VDC, are given in the following equations. The
variable Vp(rect) is the unfiltered peak rectified
voltage. Notice that if RL or C increases, the ripple
voltage decreases and the dc voltage increases.
Figure : Vr and VDC determine the ripple factor.
Example: Determine the ripple factor for the
filtered bridge rectifier with a load as indicated in
Figure below:
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Review Questions:
1. When a 60 Hz sinusoidal voltage is applied to the
input of a half-wave rectifier, what is the output
frequency?
2. When a 60 Hz sinusoidal voltage is applied to the
input of a full-wave rectifier, what is the output
frequency?
3. What causes the ripple voltage on the output of a
capacitor-input filter?
4. Define ripple factor.
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