Acknowledgement

From the depth of my heart I express my deep sincere gratitude

to the Almighty for the Blessings that had bestowed upon me to
do this work.
Having a successful project is really a great pleasure to us. Yet all
these will not have been possible if not for hard work,
persistence and cooperation among the researchers. I would like
to extend our sincerest appreciation to the following people who
helped accomplish the project. They are the people who
contributed much for the success of this endeavor.
First of all, I would like to thank our parents and benefactors who
have shown their unending support and provided us with
necessary materials I needed.
Second, I would like to thank our Physics teacher, Mr.
Rajeev Mishra Sir for teaching us the fundamental research
and investigatory writing and for showing a great deal of
patience through the time.
Above all, I would like to thank God for giving us the gift of
wisdom and understanding and for answering our prayers.

CONTENTS:

THEORY
CIRCUIT DIAGRAM
CONSTRUCTION
FULL WAVE BRIDGE RECTIFIER

HALF WAVE RECTIFICATION

FULL WAVE RECTIFICATION
RECTIFIER OUTPUT SMOOTHING
WORKING OF BRIDGE RECTIFIER]
GRAPH
BRIDGE RECTIFIER,RC FILTER
HOW RECTIFIER CIRCUIT WORKS IN ELECTRONICS
FULL WAVE BRIDGE RECTIFIER
MERITS AND DEMERITS OF FULL WAVE RECTIFIER OVER HALF WAVE
RECTIFIER

THEORY:A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current

(AC), which periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC),
which flows in only one direction. The process is known as
rectification.
Rectifiers have many uses, but are often found serving as
components of DC power supplies and high-voltage direct current
power transmission systems. Rectification may serve in roles other
than to generate direct current for use as a source of power. As noted,
detectors of radio signals serve as rectifiers. In gas heating systems
flame rectification is used to detect presence of flame.
The simple process of rectification produces a type of DC
characterized by pulsating voltages and currents (although still
unidirectional). Depending upon the type of end-use, this type of DC
current may then be further modified into the type of relatively
constant voltage DC characteristically produced by such sources as
batteries and solar cells.
A diode bridge is an arrangement of four (or more) diodes in a bridge
circuit configuration that provides the same polarity of output for
either polarity of input. When used in its most common application,
for conversion of an alternating current (AC) input into a direct current
(DC) output, it is known as a bridge rectifier. A bridge rectifier
provides full-wave rectification from a two-wire AC input, resulting in
lower cost and weight as compared to a rectifier with a 3-wire input
from a transformer with a center-tapped secondary winding.

Circuit Diagram:-

Construction:The diodes labelled D1 to D2 are arranged in "series pairs" with only

two diodes conducting current during each half cycle. During the
positive half cycle of the supply, diodes D1 and D4 conduct in series
while diodes D2 and D3 are reverse biased and the current flows
through the load as shown below.

Full Wave Bridge

Rectifier:Half-wave rectification:In half wave rectification of a single-phase supply, either the positive
or negative half of the AC wave is passed, while the other half is
blocked. Because only one half of the input waveform reaches the
output, mean voltage is lower. Half-wave rectification requires a single
diode in a single-phase supply, or three in a three-phase supply.
Rectifiers yield a unidirectional but pulsating direct current; half-wave
rectifiers produce far more ripple than full-wave rectifiers, and much
more filtering is needed to eliminate harmonics of the AC frequency
from the output.

Full-wave rectification:A full-wave rectifier converts the whole of the input waveform to one
of constant polarity (positive or negative) at its output. Full-wave
rectification converts both polarities of the input waveform to DC
(direct current), and yields a higher mean output voltage. Two diodes
and a center tapped transformer, or four diodes in a bridge
configuration and any AC source (including a transformer without
center tap), are needed. Single semiconductor diodes, double diodes

with common cathode or common anode, and four-diode bridges, are

manufactured as single components.

Bridge rectifier: A full-wave rectifier using 4 diodes.

For single-phase AC, if the transformer is center-tapped, then two
diodes back-to-back (cathode-to-cathode or anode-to-anode,
depending upon output polarity required) can form a full-wave
rectifier. Twice as many turns are required on the transformer
secondary to obtain the same output voltage than for a bridge
rectifier, but the power rating is unchanged.

Rectifier output smoothing:While half-wave and full-wave rectification can deliver unidirectional
current, neither produces a constant voltage. In order to produce
steady DC from a rectified AC supply, a smoothing circuit or filter is
required. In its simplest form this can be just a reservoir capacitor or
smoothing capacitor, placed at the DC output of the rectifier. There
will still be an AC ripple voltage component at the power supply
frequency for a half-wave rectifier, twice that for full-wave, where the
voltage is not completely smoothed.

Sizing of the capacitor represents a tradeof. For a given load, a larger

capacitor will reduce ripple but will cost more and will create higher
peak currents in the transformer secondary and in the supply feeding
it. The peak current is set in principle by the rate of rise of the supply
voltage on the rising edge of the incoming sine-wave, but in practice
it is reduced by the resistance of the transformer windings. In
extreme cases where many rectifiers are loaded onto a power
distribution circuit, peak currents may cause difficulty in maintaining
a correctly shaped sinusoidal voltage on the ac supply.
To limit ripple to a specified value the required capacitor size is
proportional to the load current and inversely proportional to the
supply frequency and the number of output peaks of the rectifier per
input cycle. The load current and the supply frequency are generally
outside the control of the designer of the rectifier system but the
number of peaks per input cycle can be afected by the choice of
rectifier design.
A half-wave rectifier will only give one peak per cycle and for this and
other reasons is only used in very small power supplies. A full wave
rectifier achieves two peaks per cycle, the best possible with a singlephase input. For three-phase inputs a three-phase bridge will give six
peaks per cycle; higher numbers of peaks can be achieved by using
transformer networks placed before the rectifier to convert to a
higher phase order.
To further reduce ripple, a capacitor-input filter can be used. This
complements the reservoir capacitor with a choke (inductor) and a
second filter capacitor, so that a steadier DC output can be obtained
across the terminals of the filter capacitor. The choke presents a high
impedance to the ripple current. For use at power-line frequencies
inductors require cores of iron or other magnetic materials, and add

weight and size. Their use in power supplies for electronic equipment
has therefore dwindled in favour of semiconductor circuits such as
voltage regulators.
A more usual alternative to a filter, and essential if the DC load
requires very low ripple voltage, is to follow the reservoir capacitor
with an active voltage regulator circuit. The reservoir capacitor needs
to be large enough to prevent the troughs of the ripple dropping

below the minimum voltage required by the regulator to

produce the required output voltage. The regulator serves
both to significantly reduce the ripple and to deal with
variations in supply and load characteristics. It would be
possible to use a smaller reservoir capacitor (these can be

large on high-current power supplies) and then apply some filtering as

well as the regulator, but this is not a common strategy. The extreme
of this approach is to dispense with the reservoir capacitor altogether
and put the rectified waveform straight into a choke-input filter. The
advantage of this circuit is that the current waveform is smoother and
consequently the rectifier no longer has to deal with the current as a
large current pulse, but instead the current delivery is spread over the
entire cycle. The disadvantage, apart from extra size and weight, is
that the voltage output is much lower approximately the average of
an AC half-cycle rather than the peak.

Working of Bridge Rectifier:During the positive input half cycle terminal M of the secondary is
positive and N is negative. Diode D1 and D3 becomes forward bias
where as D2 and D4 are reversed bias. Hence the current flows along
point M, E, A, B, C, F and N producing a drop across RL.
During the negative input half cycle secondary terminal N becomes
positive and M is negative. Now D2 and D4 are forward bias and D1
and D3 are reversed bias. Now the current flows along points N, E, A,
B, C, F and M. Hence we find that current keeps flowing through load
resistance RL in the same direction (A, B). during both half cycles of
the AC input the point A of the bridge rectifier always acts as an
anode and point C as cathod. It frequency is twice that of supply
frequency.

Graph:-

Bridge Rectifier, RC Filter:-

A bridge rectifier makes use of four diodes in a bridge arrangement to

achieve full-wave rectification. This is a widely used configuration,
both with individual diodes wired as shown and with single
component bridges where the diode bridge is wired internally.

How Rectifier Circuit Works in

Electronics:One of the most common uses for rectifier diodes in electronics is to
convert household alternating current into direct current that can be
used as an alternative to batteries. The rectifier circuit, which is
typically made from a set of cleverly interlocked diodes, converts
alternating current to direct current.
In household current, the voltage swings from positive to negative in
cycles that repeat 60 times per second. If you place a diode in series
with an alternating current voltage, you eliminate the negative side of
the voltage cycle, so you end up with just positive voltage.

If you look at the waveform of the voltage coming out of this

rectifier diode, you'll see that it consists of intervals that
alternate between a short increase of voltage and periods of
no voltage at all. This is a form of direct current because it
consists entirely of positive voltage. However, it pulsates:
first it's on, then it's of, then it's on again, and so on.
Overall, voltage rectified by a single diode is of half of the
time. So although the positive voltage reaches the same
peak level as the input voltage, the average level of the
rectified voltage is only half the level of the input voltage.

This type of rectifier circuit is sometimes called a half-wave

rectifier because it passes along only half of the incoming
alternating current waveform.
A better type of rectifier circuit uses four rectifier diodes, in a
special circuit called a bridge rectifier.

Look at how this rectifier works on both sides of the

alternating current input signal: In the first half of the AC cycle, D2 and D4 conduct
because they're forward biased. Positive voltage is on
the anode of D2 and negative voltage is on the cathode
of D4. Thus, these two diodes work together to pass the
first half of the signal through.
In the second half of the AC cycle, D1 and D3 conduct
because they're forward biased: Positive voltage is on
the anode of D1, and negative voltage is on the cathode
of D3.
The net efect of the bridge rectifier is that both halves of the
AC sine wave are allowed to pass through, but the negative
half of the wave is inverted so that it becomes positive.
In the bridge circuit four diodes are connected in the form of
a Wheatstone bridge, two diametrically opposite junctions of
the bridge are connected to the secondary of a transformer
and the other two are connected to the load.

Full-wave-bridge-rectifier:-

As shown in the given diagram of full wave bridge rectifier it

consists of four diodes under the condition in which four
diodes are connected the called bridge circuit. So due to this
type of circuit is named bridge rectifier. A resistor is
connected in the circuit where rectified output voltage

appears called load resistor RL. When the upper end of the
transformer secondary winding is positive, say during first
half-cycles of the input supply, diodes D1 and D3 are forward
biased and current flows through arm AB, enters the load at
positive terminal, leaves the load at negative terminal, and
returns back flowing through arm DC. During this half of each
input cycle, the diodes D2 and D4 are reverse biased and so
the current is not allowed to flow in arms AD and BC. The
flow of current is indicated by solid arrows in the figure. In
the second half of the input cycle the lower end of ac supply
becomes positive, diodes D2 and D4 become forward biased
and current flows through arm CB, enters the load at the
positive terminal, leaves the load at negative terminal and
returns back flowing through arm DA. Flow of current has
been shown by dotted arrows in the figure. Thus the
direction of flow of current through the load resistance RL
remains the same during both half cycles of the input supply
voltage.

Merits and Demerits of Full-wave

Rectifier over Half-Wave Rectifier:Merits:1. The rectification efficiency of full-wave rectifier is

double of that of a half-wave rectifier.

2. The ripple voltage is low and of higher frequency in
case of a full-wave rectifier so simple filtering circuit is
required.
3. Higher output voltage higher output power and higher
TUF in case of a full-wave rectifier.
4. In a full-wave rectifier, there is no problem due to dc
saturation of the core because the dc currents in the
two halves of the transformer secondary flow in
opposite directions.

Demerits:-

1. Full-wave rectifier needs more circuit elements and

is costlier.