Basic Electrical and Electronics Engineering

15

Rectifiers and Other Diode Circuits

TOPICS DISCUSSED

• Half-wave and full-wave rectifier circuits

• Analysis of rectifiers

• Filters

• Clipping and clamping circuits

15.1 Rectifiers

15.1.1 Introduction

A rectifier is a device that converts ac supply into dc using diodes. Rectification can be done by half-wave or full-wave rectification circuits. All electronic circuits need a dc voltage for their operation. The supply voltage available is from the ac mains which is 230 V, 50 Hz supply. A rectifier will first step down the ac supply voltage to the required level by using a step-down transformer. A single diode can be used to rectify the ac voltage into half-wave rectified dc voltage. Since the rectified voltage is a unidirectionally changing ...