Experiment No.

04:

Experiment Name: Study of Full-Wave Rectifiers.

Objective: The objective of this experiment is to calculate, compare, draw, and measure the DC output
voltages of half-wave and full-wave rectifier circuits.

Theory:

The primary function of half-wave and full-wave rectification systems is to establish a DC level from a
sinusoidal input signal that has zero average (DC) level.

The half-wave voltage signal of Fig 1, normally established by a network with a single diode, has an
average or equivalent DC voltage level equal to 31.8% of the peak voltage Vm. That is Vdc = 0.318
.Vpeak volts (half-wave) eq.2.1

The full-wave rectifier signal of Fig.2.1 has twice the average or DC level of the half-wave signal, or
63.6% of the peak value Vm.
That is Vdc = 0.636 .Vpeak volts (full-wave) eq.2.2

For large sinusoidal inputs (Vm>> VT) the forward-biased transition voltage VT of a diode can be ignored.
However, for situations when the peak value of the sinusoidal signal is not that much greater than VT, VT
can have a noticeable effect on VDC

Full Wave Bridge and Centre tapped rectifier :

Figure 1: Full Wave Bridge Rectifier

When an AC supply is switched ON, the alternating voltage V in appears across the terminals AB of the
secondary winding of the transformer which needs rectification. During the positive half cycle of the
secondary voltage, end A becomes positive, and end B becomes negative as shown in the figure below.

The diodes D1 and D3 are forward biased and the diodes D2 and D4 are reversed biased. Therefore, diode D1
and D3 conduct, and diode D2 and D4 do not conduct. The current (i) flows through diode D1, load resistor
RL (from M to L), diode D3, and the transformer secondary. During the negative half-cycle, end A becomes
negative and end B positive.
From the above diagram, it is seen that the diode D2 and D4 are under forward bias and the diodes D1 and

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D3 are reverse bias. Therefore, diode D2 and D4 conduct while diodes D1 and D3 do not conduct. Thus,
current (i) flows through the diode D2, load resistor RL (from M to L), diode D4, and the transformer
secondary.
The current flows through the load resistor RL in the same direction (M to L) during both the half cycles.
Hence, a DC output voltage Vout is obtained across the load resistor.

In a Full Wave Rectifier circuit two diodes are now used, one for each half of the cycle. A multiple winding
transformer is used whose secondary winding is split equally into two halves with a common centre tapped
connection, (C). This configuration results in each diode conducting in turn when its anode terminal is
positive with respect to the transformer centre point C producing an output during both halfcycles, twice
that for the half wave rectifier.

Figure 2: Centre tapped rectifier

The full wave rectifier circuit consists of two power diodes connected to a single load resistance (RL) with
each diode taking it in turn to supply current to the load. When point A of the transformer is positive with
respect to point C, diode D1 conducts in the forward direction as indicated by the arrows.
When point B is positive (in the negative half of the cycle) with respect to point C, diode D2 conducts in
the forward direction and the current flowing through resistor R is in the same direction for both half
cycles. As the output voltage across the resistor R is the phasor sum of the two waveforms combined, this
type of full wave rectifier circuit is also known as a “bi-phase” circuit.

Full-Wave Rectifiers with Smoothing Capacitor

In the process of rectification from an AC current to DC current, the amount of ripples present in the DC
output will be greatly reduced by placing a capacitor in parallel with the resistive load. The capacitance of
the capacitor should be very high in order to eliminate great amounts of AC harmonic frequencies in DC
output, but the cost and size of the capacitor should be less.

The full-wave bridge rectifier, gives us a greater mean DC value (0.637 Vmax) with less superimposed
ripple while the output waveform is twice that of the frequency of the input supply frequency. We can
therefore increase its average DC output level even higher by connecting a suitable smoothing capacitor
across the output of the bridge circuit as shown below. The smoothing capacitor converts the full-wave
rippled output of the rectifier into a smooth DC output voltage.

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 Figure 3: Full wave bridge rectifier with smoothing capacitor

However, there are two important parameters to consider when choosing a suitable smoothing capacitor
and these are its Working Voltage, which must be higher than the no-load output value of the rectifier and
its Capacitance Value, which determines the amount of ripple that will appear superimposed on top of the
DC voltage.
Too low a capacitance value and the capacitor has little effect on the output waveform. But if the
smoothing capacitor is sufficiently large enough (parallel capacitors can be used) and the load current is
not too large, the output voltage will be almost as smooth as pure DC.

Equipment List:
1. Bread Board 2.
Multi-meter
3. Diodes.
4. Cathode Ray Oscilloscope (CRO)
5. Resistor –1.5K, 1K.
6. Capacitor - 100μF 7. DC Power Supply.
8. Signal Generator

Experimental Procedure:

1. Construct the circuits of Fig.3 using diode. Record the measured value of the resistance R. set the
function generator to 50 Hz, 10Vp-p sinusoidal voltages using the oscilloscope.
2. Using the oscilloscope with the DC position, obtain the voltage V0 and sketch the waveform.
Before viewing V0 be sure to set the V0 = 0 V line using the GND position of the coupling switch.
3. Calculate the DC level of the half-wave rectifier signal using eq.2.1 (for half wave) and eq. 2.2 (for
full wave).
4. Measure the DC level of V0 using the DC scale of the DMM and find the percent difference
between the measured value and the calculated value of part 2(e) using the following equation:

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Report Writing:

1. Reverse the diodes of fig 2 in the centre tapped rectifier and draw the waveform.
2. Calculate the Vm and Vdcfor full wave rectification.
3. Reverse the diodes of fig.1 in the full-Wave bridge Rectifier circuit and sketch the output
waveform.

Discussion:

a) What has been taught in this experiment?

b) Discuss the causes of error.
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