Lecture 5

Half-Wave Rectifier
We can revisit the simple rectifier circuit that we examined before for charging a battery:
It is referred to as a half-wave rectifier This is because it only converts half the wave to DC. As well see later you can get more than that. Its is not the best design because half the power of the incoming ac signal is unusable. But it is very simple, as we have seen.

Last time we looked at it though, we only had the ideal diode model to work with. Now we can take another look with the more sophisticated models. One thing to expect is there will be voltage losses due to the turn-on voltage and internal resistance of the diode.

Half-Wave Rectifier II
Knowing the complexities of the exponential model, we will want to avoid using that. Our choices for a model amount to:
Piecewise linear Constant voltage drop Small signal

The ideal diode has been done already, so we dont have that as an option. Not knowing the load resistance ahead of time, we will want to avoid the constant voltage drop; if the load has a small resistance, that model will be too inaccurate. The input sine wave crosses zero volts, so we can definitively rule out the small signal model. This leaves us with the piecewise linear model to work with

Rectifier Model
Substituting the piecewise linear model of the diode into the circuit gives us the equivalent circuit. We can calculate the voltage across the load. We will need two equations for the two cases; VS<VDO and VSVDO

vO = 0 vS < VDO
R R vO = vS VDO R + rD R + rD vS VDO

In cases where rD<<R, the second equation can be written as:

vO vS VDO

Rectifier Model II
We see that the results are similar to what we saw with the simpler model Except, here we see the effect of the turnon voltage, resulting in a drop in the peak voltage across the load Less obvious is the additional voltage drop due to the slight resistive losses in the diode

Breakdown

Caveats
There are a few considerations when selecting a diode for a rectifier circuit:
The current limit on the diode. If the load will draw a large amount of current, then a diode rated for the expected amount should be chosen. The peak inverse voltage the diode must withstand when the diode is in reverse bias mode. We wish to avoid breakdown in the diode for two reasons:
First, and most obviously, we dont want the output polarity to reverse at any time Second, unless we were lucky, the PIV will greatly exceed the breakdown voltage resulting in the destruction of the diode!

But to be safe, we want to select a diode with a breakdown at least 50% greater than the expected PIV.

Full Wave Rectifier

We covered the half-wave rectifier because it was simple. But now lets see how to get that other 50% of the power. To get full-wave rectification, we will need at least two diodes:
One diode each for the two polarities But how do we get that to work? We know to diodes in parallel with polarities reversed will do nothing, so we need to find a way to get them out of a parallel circuit

One way would be to have two separate AC sources

Sound like an even worse idea than the half-wave? No, there is a neat trick with a transformer that we can use

Transformers
Transformers can be built so that they produce multiple, isolated outputs. If we use two output, and rectify the opposite polarity from each one, and using an appropriately chosen common ground, we can get full wave rectification There are a few considerations to this:
Since transformers dissipate almost no power within them, the unused half of each outputs cycle does not draw power from the line A special transformer know as a center tapped transformer has to be used. But they are very common.

Full-Wave Rectifier II
Here we can see an implementation of the dual sources:
The two secondary windings on the transformer are tied together at the center tap, establishing the common ground. The other terminals of the sources are sent through a half-wave rectifier circuit

Why does this produce just one polarity?

The phase of the two sources is the same, but we have switched the location of the ground in on circuit as compared to the other With the phase reversed, one of the half wave rectifiers is putting out a voltage when the other is blocking, thus filling in each others gaps.

We get an output that looks like sine wave folded such that it never crosses zero. This is a full wave output.

Now Hold Your Horses!

The full wave rectifier looks like a great circuit (and it is!) But there is a potentially lethal (to the rectifier, that is) problem. We effectively looked at two Kirchhoff loops in the circuit, but there is a third. Current could flow through both secondary windings and both diodes
Yes, the diodes are opposed, so no current will flow, in theory But with the two windings in series, the voltage across the diodes is double!

When we design this circuit, we need to make certain our diodes have a breakdown strength that is greater than twice the peak inverse voltage of either of the secondary windings. There is a slight gain though, since one diode is conducting, the peak inverse voltage will be reduced by the turn-on voltage of one of the diodes

PIV = 2VS VD