EEE1001

ELECTRIC CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS

Module 4 – Lecture 2

Dr. Arindam Dutta

Assistant Professor
School of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
VIT Bhopal

Email: arindamdutta@[Link]
Cabin: C-509
 Rectifiers
A rectifier is a device that converts ac supply into dc using diodes. Rectification can be done by halfwave or full-wave
rectification circuits.

A half-wave rectifier circuit consisting diode, and a load represented by a resistor has been shown in the figure. The input and
output wave shapes have been shown of a transformer. The diode is forward biased during the positive half cycle of the
applied voltage and reverse biased during the negative half cycle.

During the positive half cycle, i.e., from time 0 to π, voltage is positive, and hence terminal A of the transformer is positive.
Diode is forward biased, and hence current will flow through the diode and through the load resistance, RL. If a step down
transformer is used, the magnitude of output voltage will be reduced. If however, step down of voltage is not required, a
transformer having an equal turn ratio, i.e., N2/N1 will be used. The function of the transformer will be to electrically isolate
the dc output circuit from the input circuit.

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 Rectifiers
During the negative half cycle of the input voltage wave, the terminal A of the transformer will be negative and terminal B will
be positive. The diode will be reverse biased and virtually no current will flow through the diode and the load. This sequence
of allowing the positive half cycle of current through the diode and blocking the negative half cycle will continue for each and
every cycle of power supply. As a result, a half-wave rectified current will flow through the output circuit. The voltage drop
across the load resistance, RL will be the output voltage, VO which will be a half-wave rectified voltage. When the diode is
reverse biased, the maximum or peak voltage of the negative half cycle of the input will be appearing across the diode
terminals. This is the peak of the reverse voltage or peak-inverse voltage (PIV) which is getting applied to the diode in every
alternate half cycles.

A diode works as a closed switch during the positive half cycle of the input voltage and works as an open switch during the
negative half cycle. The output voltage appears across the load during the positive half cycle only. The load voltage and load
current although positive all the time (i.e., unidirectional) are fluctuating dc as its magnitudes are changing. Our aim will be to
obtain steady dc at the output. The average and rms values of this fluctuating dc can be calculated as Im/π and Im/2,
respectively.

The performance parameters of a half-wave rectifier output are calculated in terms of the output dc current (i.e., the average
value of the rectified wave), the rms value of the output current, the output voltage, ripple factor, PIV, etc.

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 Rectifiers
Ripple Factor: The output of a half-wave rectifier is a pulsating dc. If we analyse, we will see that it has a steady dc
component and an ac component. The ac component is called the ripple. Ripple factor is defined as the ratio of the rms value
of ac component to the value of dc component. The ripple factor indicates the level of fluctuation of the output voltage from
its steady value. Ripple is an undesired effect and should be minimized. The ripple factor, r for a half-wave rectifier is
calculated as

Also, or,

where Iac is the rms value of the ac component of the output current, Idc is the dc component of the output current, and Irms is
the rms value of the output current. Therefore,

Considering Irms = Im/2 and Idc = Im/π,

Output voltage, Vdc across the load is 4

The forward resistance, Rf of the diode is very small, and hence I2rmsRf can be neglected in comparison with I2rmsRL.

This value of efficiency is considered low and ripple factor is considered very high. A filter circuit has to be used to minimize
the ripples.

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 Rectifiers
Peak inverse voltage (PIV): As mentioned earlier, PIV is the maximum value of reverse voltage that appears across the diode
when it gets reverse biased. Here

PIV = Vm

Voltage Regulation of the rectifier is calculated using the relation,

The difference between no-load voltage and full-load voltage is the voltage drop in the transformer winding and across the
diode. The value of voltage regulation, which is generally expressed in percentage should be low.

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 Rectifiers
Full-wave rectifiers can be made using two diodes and a centre-tapped transformer. Full-wave rectifiers are also made using a
two-winding transformer and four diodes. Such rectifiers are called bridge rectifiers.

Two-diode full-wave rectifier: here ac input voltage is supplied from the secondary of a centre-tapped transformer. The
circuit consists of the transformer, two diodes and the load resistance. The circuit is essentially the summation of two half-
wave rectifiers. For the positive half cycle of the input voltage, diode D1 will conduct. This is because terminal A is positive
and the diode D1 is forward biased. As terminal B is negative, diode D2 will not conduct. In the negative half cycle, terminal
B is positive and terminal A is negative. Hence, diode D2 will conduct and diode D1 will be reverse biased. This way in each
half cycle one of the two diodes will conduct and current will flow through the load resistance, RL. The output current and the
output voltage across the load will be a full-wave rectified current and voltage, respectively. The output wave form is a series
of consecutive positive half cycles of sinusoidal wave form. The current through the load resistance is unidirectional but its
magnitude is fluctuating. The PIV is the maximum voltage that would appear across a diode when it is reverse biased. Here,
when D1 is conducting, D2 is reverse biased and vice versa. When D1 is conducting, the voltage that would appear across
diode D2 is the sum of the voltage across the lower half of the transformer secondary winding and the voltage appearing
across the load. PIV of the diode is equal to 2 Vm.

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 Rectifiers
A bridge rectifier circuit uses four diodes connected in the form of a bridge. During the positive half cycle of the input
voltage, terminal A of the transformer is positive. Current will flow from the positive terminal through diode D1, load RL and
diode D4, and back to the negative terminal, B of the transformer. The direction of current through the load has been shown to
be from C to D, i.e., from top to bottom. The polarities of the load terminals have been shown. During this period diodes D2
and D3 are reverse biased. During the negative half cycle of the input voltage diodes D3 and D2 are forward biased while
diodes D1 and D4 are reverse biased. Current through the load will flow in the same direction, i.e., from terminal C to D.
During both positive and negative half cycles of the input voltage, current will pass through the load in the same direction.
The output voltage wave shape is a series of positive half cycles of the sinusoidal voltage. This is dc output but having a
varying magnitude. The transformer provides isolation of the dc output from the supply ac input.

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 Rectifiers
The average value or dc value of load current (Idc) of a full-wave rectifier will be the same if calculated for a period 0 to
π or 0 to 2π and turns out to be 2Im/π. The rms value of the load current (Irms) is Im/√2.

where RL is the load resistance, RF is the forward resistance of the diode, and R2 is the secondary winding resistance of the
transformer.

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 Rectifiers

We had earlier calculated the ripple factor for a half-wave rectifier as 1.21. For a full-wave rectifier, the ripple factor is
reduced to 0.48. This indicates that the fluctuation of dc output is reduced. PIV for a bridge rectifier = Vm.

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Rectifiers

+ RF

+ RF

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 Problem
Q: A half-wave diode rectifier has a forward voltage drop, i.e., voltage drop across the diode when conducting is 0.7 V. The
load resistance is 600 Ω. The rms value of the ac input is 28.87 V. Calculate Idc, Irms, PIV, and form factor.
 Problem
Q: The input to a bridge rectifier is through a step-down transformer of turn ratio 10:1. The supply voltage is 230 V at 50 Hz.
The load resistance is 1.2 kΩ secondary winding resistance of the transformer is 4 Ω diode forward resistance is 2 Ω.
Calculate the efficiency of the bridge rectifier.

Peak secondary voltage,

Current through the load will flow from the transformer secondary via two diodes. Therefore, following the current path
during the positive half cycle: