DC Power Supply- an Introduction

In this section we are going to study how the AC mains supply is converted into the DC supply required for operating many of the common electronic equipments. As you all may be aware almost all of the electronic equipments require DC power supply for their operation. ven those equipments to which we provide AC mains supply! convert it internally into DC supply to power the electronic circuits So! almost all electronic circuits require DC power supply and we have AC supply commonly available in our homes! offices etc. "ow! if we somehow convert the AC mains supply to DC! then we can run our equipments using this converted DC supply. #he process of converting the AC mains supply to DC supply is called $rectification% and the circuit used for this purpose is called $rectifier%. &sing the rectifier circuit and some other electronic components one can ma'e a power supply to provide DC power to our electronic equipments.

Sections in a power supply Power Supply (et us now see that are those components that together with the rectifier ma'e a complete power supply. Step Down #ransformer )ectifier Circuit *ilter Circuit

 )egulator Circuit Step Down Transformer #he step down transformer is used to reduce or step down the mains AC supply voltage to a low value. #he output from the step down transformer is still in the AC form! only the voltage is reduced. Rectifier Circuit In the ne+t section! this reduced AC voltage is fed to a rectifier circuit. #he ,ob of this rectifier is to convert this AC supply into DC. #he output of the rectifier will be a DC supply! but it will be a pulsating DC supply! i.e. this DC supply will contain small amount of pulses. *ilter Circuit. #o remove these pulses from the DC supply and to ma'e it a clean DC supply! this pulsating DC supply is ne+t fed to a filter circuit. It is the ,ob of this filter circuit to convert this DC with pulses into a pure DC. )egulator Circuit #his final DC output when given to equipment must provide a constant DC supply. -ut the DC output from the filter circuit changes according to change in the load value or according to change in the input AC mains voltage. #o 'eep this DC output constant irrespective of change in input AC mains voltage and the load! a circuit 'nown as regulator circuit is used. #his regulator is the last bloc' in the power supply. #he output of the regulator will be a constant DC voltage! which can be used to power the required equipment. (et us now see each of these bloc' in detail their types! how they can be made using various electronic devices etc.

)ectifier circuit After stepping down the A C mains supply! the reduced AC supply is converted into DC by this rectifier circuit. #hree most common type of rectifier circuits are .alf wave rectifier *ull wave rectifier *ull wave bridge rectifier (et us now see how these rectifiers convert the AC supply into DC supply. .alf /ave )ectifier As shown in the figure! half wave rectifier is made of a diode. *irst! the mains AC supply is reduced using a step down transformer. #his reduced AC supply is fed to the rectifier circuit. In this rectifier during the positive half cycle of AC! diode is forward biased. *orward biasing of diode ma'es it conduct! and the current flows through the diode to the load at the output. #his flow of current through load will generate output voltage in the load.

During the other half cycle! negative half cycle of input AC voltage! the diode is reverse biased! so it will not conduct. As the diode does not conduct! no current flows through the load. During this time there will be no output voltage.

As only the half cycle of the AC is rectified and converted into DC voltage! this rectification is called half wave rectification. Also! as you can see in the figure 0! the output of this rectifier is not a pure DC voltage! it is pulsating DC output normally cheap battery eliminators and DC adaptors use this type of single diode! half wave rectification. *ull /ave )ectifier #he circuit for full wave rectifier is shown in the figure 1. As you can see in this figure! in a full wave rectifier! both the cycles positive and negative cycles of AC is rectified. #he diodes are arranged in such a manner that in both cycles of AC! a positive DC output is available. In this circuit! the secondary of the transformer is center tapped. -ecause of this! during the positive half cycle of AC at the input of transformer will induce a positive half cycle in the upper half of the secondary winding and at the same time a negative half cycle is induced in the lower half of the secondary winding. Positive half cycle in the upper half of the secondary will forward bias the D2 diode and current will flow through D2 and (oad to ground. At this time the diode D0 remains reverse biased and current will not flows through it. "ow! in the second half! i.e. negative half of the AC cycle! a negative half cycle is induced in the upper half and a positive half cycle is induced in the lower half of the secondary winding. #his will reverse bias the D0 diode. As a result of this the current will flow through diode D0 and (oad. So! you can see that in the full wave rectifier circuit shown in the figure 1! in both the half cycles of AC! the current will flow through the (oad in one direct ion only. As both the half cycles are rectified in the full wave rectifier! the efficiency of full wave rectifier is double than the efficiency of half wave rectifier. Also! in a full wave rectifier small si3e transformer can be used! because two equal and opposite currents flow through the secondary winding does not

allow the transformer core to get saturated. #his reduces cost! weight and si3e of the power supply. *ull /ave -ridge )ectifier In the full wave rectifier! the output is ta'en from a center tapping at the secondary of the transfer. So! at any time only the half of the secondary windings are used in the circuit. -ecause of this the transformer has to produce twice the voltage required. If the output requirement is 245 DC! then you will need a transformer which provides 045 DC at its output winding. A full wave bridge rectifier solves this problem by using a special arrangement of diodes as shown in the figure 6. As you can see in the figure! a full wave bridge rectifier does not require a specially tapped transformer. (et us see the wor'ing principle of this rectifier. In this rectifier four diodes are connected across the secondary winding as you can see in the figure 6! this arrangement of diodes in the secondary is called $bridge arrangement%. During the positive half cycle of input AC signal! in the secondary winding! point A is positive and - is negative. #his ma'es diode D6 7 D1 forward biased and the current flows from point A to point D through D6! D to C through (oad and from point C to through D1. During this time! D2 and D0 remain reversed biased. During the negative half cycle of input AC signal! in the secondary winding! point - is positive and A is negative. #his ma'es diode D2 7 D0 forward biased and the current flows from point - to point D through D0! D to C through (oad and from point C to A through D2. During this time! D1 and D6 remain reversed biased.

"ote that for both half cycles of AC! direction of current through load is same! from point D to C. So! this bridge rectifier rectifies full AC wave and produces DC output from the AC input using the full secondary winding. *ilter Circuit #he output from the rectifier is not pure DC voltage! it is called pulsating DC voltage as it in the form of half AC pulses. #he DC supply we receive from the battery is pure DC supply! without any AC pulses. #o get pure DC supply from pulsating DC voltage these AC pulses needs to be removed8reduced from the rectified DC output. *ilter circuits are used for this purpose. #o ma'e a filter circuit we need a device! which will pass the AC pulse while stopping DC signal! or a device! which will pass the DC signal while stopping AC pulse. /e 'now that capacitors allow the AC signal to pass and coils stop the AC signal. /hen a capacitor is used in parallel to pulsating DC signal! the capacitor will bypass the AC signal and when a coil is used in series to pulsating DC signal! the coil will stop the AC pulses. #hese properties of capacitor and coil are the reason behind the filter circuit being made of coil or capacitor or combination of both. Depending upon these components! the filters are classified as Capacitor filter Inductive filter 9Cho'e8Coil: (C filter Pie filter

Capacitor *ilter /hen a capacitor is connected between the output terminals as shown in the figure ;! the capacitor acts as a filter. #o use as a filter! the capacitor must be of lectrolytic type having proper value and voltage rating.

/e 'now that one ma,or property of capacitor is it bloc's DC supply and allows AC supply to go through it. So! when the DC supply with AC ripple! is passed through the capacitor! the capacitor bloc's DC and allows some part of the AC to pass through it. #his gives a DC output with reduced ripple! at the output terminal. Inductive *ilter 9Cho'e8Coil: <ther than capacitor! iron core inductor or cho'e8coil can be connected in series with the rectifier output to ma'e a filter.

#he property o=f the coil is it passes dc supply and bloc' AC supply! it is opposites of the capacitor. So! when the rectifier output is given to the coil! some part of the ac ripple is bloc'ed by the coil and the complete dc passes through it to the output terminal.

Combination filters *iltering the rectifier output using only one component is not enough! the output still contains some ripple signal. Above two methods may be good enough for many electronic items! but sophisticated electronic equipments require a perfect dc supply. *or them a combination of the two methods are used. #hese are called combination filters and one of them is (C filter. (C filter As shown in the figure! (C filter is a combination of capacitor and cho'e is used. In this method the ripple which is not removed by one filter will get removed by the ne+t filter. #his circuit gives better filtration than the capacitor filter or the cho'e filter is used alone.

PI filter In this method of filtration one cho'e and two capacitors are used. As you can see in the figure! first a capacitor filters the rectifier output. #his rectified signal is ne+t given to the cho'e for the further filtration and finally another capacitor is used to remove any remaining ripple from rectified signal.

#his further will provide almost pure dc supply at the output. #his further because of its resembles to the >ree' alphabet pi is 'nown as PI filter.