Diodes and Half-wave Rectification

Experiment 3- EE105L/A01
Submitted by:

CARLOS, Jejomar GOMEZ, Clarissa GRANADA, Jonan MANGALIMAN, Neory SANTOS, Meg Anne

Submitted to:

ENGR. WOHLER BRYAN GUIAO

III. DATA AND ANALYSIS Part 1. Diode Characteristics Table 1. Conductivity Determination Using Ohm Meter COMMON(BLACK LEAD) PLACED AT THE CR1 ANODE Resistance Value OVERLOAD Conducting? No Bias Reverse COMMON PLACED AT THE CATHODE Resistance Value Has reading but not recorded Conducting? Yes Bias Forward Is CR1 a good or bad diode? Good Table 2. Forward and reverse Biasing Using the Variable DC Supply Value of Resistor R1 and R2 3.3kohms USING NEGATIVE VARIABLE SUPPLY VR1 -9.3V VR2 0V Forward Bias CR1 Reverse Bias CR2 Which diode allows current to flow? CR1 USING POSITIVE VARIABLE SUPPLY VR1 0V VR2 9.37 V Forward Bias CR2 Reverse Bias CR1 Which diode allows current to flow? CR2 Calculated IR2 2.818 mA Measured IR2 2.818 mA When measured resistance is overload, no current flows, thus reverse biased Reverse measurement indicates the biasing is in the forward direction The polarity of the source determines which diode conduct electricity Resistance measured was that of the resistor due to difficulty in measuring resistance of diodes To compute for the resistance of the diode, Ohms law is used The system is in series therefore, current flow is constant

Part 2. Half-Wave Rectification Table 4. Initial Voltage Measurements Vmax V Calculated Vrms Calculated Vave Table 5. Ripple Frequency Determination Amplitude of the positive pulsations In observing the input and output signals on channels 1 and 2, respectively, by using the oscilloscope CHOP method, Is the ripple frequency the same as the input frequency? What is the ripple frequency? What is the difference in voltage, and what causes the difference? Table 6. Diode Analysis Using CHOP Method What happens at point A on the illustration and the oscilloscope display? What happens at point B? Is the voltage before point A and after point B sufficient to overcome the diode barrier voltage?

1V 0.710 V 0.7071 V 0.6362 V

0.5 V Yes

1000Hz Difference: 0.5V dc Caused by diode forward voltage drop Vf

Diode connection begins at point A

Diode connection stops at point B No, the voltage before point A and after point B is not sufficient to overcome the diode barrier potential What is subtracted from the input peak amplitude 500-200 mV= 300 mV to make the peak amplitudes of the input and output waveforms unequal? Table 7. Negative and Positive Rectifications SWITCH 7 IS OFF From the appearance of the oscilloscope The diode voltage drop is subtracted from the waveforms, is this a positive or a negative half- input waveform and the difference is the circuit wave rectifier circuit? output When the oscilloscope channel 2 input to the top The circuit is a negative half-wave rectifier because of R1 is connected, why is this circuit a negative the output pulsations are negative with respect to half-wave rectifier? common Do the same input/output relationships apply to Yes both the positive and negative half-wave rectifiers? Is CR1 conducting or is it cut off during the Yes negative portions of the output waveform? SWITCH 7 IS ON What now appears at the output? A waveform is about equal to and in phase with the input signal CM switch 7 connects 1k resistor across CR1, yes allowing current to flow during positive peaks of

the input waveform, from your observations, can you conclude that the normal reverse resistance of CR1 is much higher than 1k? Does switch 7 cause CR1 to simulate a good diode CR1 appears to be replaced by a defective diode with sufficient reverse resistance or does it cause with insufficient reverse resistance CR1 to simulate a defective diode with insufficient reverse resistance? SWITCH 7 IS OFF BUT WITH SOME MANIPULATIONS Output DC display ~ -1.4V Average DC Output calculated -0.445 (0.318*-1.4) Why does the multimeter display a lower reading The reading is lower because the waveform is not than the value calculated? a true sine wave. The 0.318 factor in the equation is based on a sine wave Table 8. Reverse Recovery Time Determination What causes the positive peaks that are visible on the channel 2 trace? With the increase in sine wave generator frequency to 100kHz and the oscilloscope sweep speed to 10 micro s/cm. Can the channel 2 waveform be called pulsating dc?0

The reverse recovery time diode CR1 No, the reverse recovery time is almost as long as the alteration of the input sine wave, and the waveform is a distorted ac signal

The values show that the measured V is close to the measured Vm and Vave The calculations were determined using formulas for Vrms and Vave

The subtracted value around 0.3V indicates that the diode used is germanium-based The reverse recovery time was determined through manipulations done on the frequency and the sweep spread

IV. CONCLUSION The Half wave rectifier is a circuit, which converts an ac voltage to dc voltage. In the Half wave rectifier circuit shown above the transformer serves two purposes. 1. It can be used to obtain the desired level of dc voltage (using step up or step down transformers). 2. It provides isolation from the power line. The primary of the transformer is connected to ac supply. This induces an ac voltage across the secondary of the transformer. During the positive half cycle of the input voltage the polarity of the voltage across the secondary forward biases the diode. As a result a current IL flows through the load resistor, RL. The forward biased diode offers a very low resistance and hence the voltage drop across it is very small. Thus the voltage appearing across the load is practically the same as the input voltage at every instant.

During the negative half cycle of the input voltage the polarity of the secondary voltage gets reversed. As a result, the diode is reverse biased. Practically no current flows through the circuit and almost no voltage is developed across the resistor. All input voltage appears across the diode itself. Hence we conclude that when the input voltage is going through its positive half cycle, output voltage is almost the same as the input voltage and during the negative half cycle no voltage is available across the load. This explains the unidirectional pulsating dc waveform obtained as output. The process of removing one half the input signals to establish a dc level is aptly called half wave rectification.

I.INTRODUCTION

Simply defined, rectification is the conversion of alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC). This involves a device that only allows one-way flow of electrons. As we have seen, this is exactly what a semiconductor diode does. The simplest kind of rectifier circuit is the half-wave rectifier. It only allows one half of an AC waveform to pass through to the load. (Figure below)

Half-wave rectifier circuit. For most power applications, half-wave rectification is insufficient for the task. The harmonic content of the rectifier's output waveform is very large and consequently difficult to filter. Furthermore, the AC power source only supplies power to the load one half every full cycle, meaning that half of its capacity is unused. Half-wave rectification is, however, a very simple way to reduce power to a resistive load. Some two-position lamp dimmer switches apply full AC power to the lamp filament for full brightness and then half-wave rectify it for a lesser light output. (Figure below)

Half-wave rectifier application: Two level lamp dimmer. In the Dim switch position, the incandescent lamp receives approximately one-half the power it would normally receive operating on full-wave AC. Because the half-wave rectified power pulses far more rapidly than the filament has time to heat up and cool down, the lamp does not blink. Instead, its filament merely operates at a lesser temperature than normal, providing less light output. This principle of pulsing power rapidly to a slow-responding load device to control the electrical power sent to it is common in the world of industrial electronics. Since the controlling device (the diode, in this case) is either fully conducting or fully nonconducting at any given time, it dissipates little heat energy while controlling load power, making this method of power control very energy-efficient. This circuit is perhaps the crudest possible method of pulsing power to a load, but it suffices as a proof-of-concept application.

The purpose of the rectifier section is to convert the incoming ac from a transformer or other ac power source to some form of pulsating dc. That is, it takes current that flows alternately in both directions as shown in the first figure to the right, and modifies it so that the output current flows only in one direction, as shown in the second and third figures below. The circuit required to do this may be nothing more than a single diode, or it may be considerably more complex. However, all rectifier circuits may be classified into one of two categories, as follows:

Half-Wave Rectifiers. An easy way to convert ac to pulsating dc is to simply allow half of the ac cycle to pass, while blocking current to prevent it from flowing during the other half cycle. The figure to the right shows the resulting output. Such circuits are known as half-wave rectifiers because they only work on half of the incoming ac wave.

The Half-Wave Rectifier

The simplest rectifier circuit is nothing more than a diode connected in series with the ac input, as shown to the right. Since a diode passes current in only one direction, only half of the incoming ac wave will reach the rectifier output. Thus, this is a basic half-wave rectifier. The orientation of the diode matters; as shown, it passes only the positive half-cycle of the ac input, so the output voltage contains a positive dc component. If the diode were to be reversed, the negative half-cycle would be passed instead, and the dc component of the output would have a negative polarity. In either case, the DC component of the output waveform is vp/ = 0.3183vp, where vp is the peak voltage output from the transformer secondary winding.

It is also quite possible to use two half-wave rectifiers together, as shown in the second figure to the right. This arrangement provides both positive and negative output voltages, with each output utilizing half of the incoming ac cycle. Note that in all cases, the lower transformer connection also serves as the common reference point for the output. It is typically connected to the common ground of the overall circuit. This can be very important in some applications. The transformer windings are of course electrically insulated from the iron core, and that core is normally grounded by the fact that it is bolted physically to the metal chassis (box) that supports the entire circuit. By also grounding one end of the secondary winding, we help ensure that this winding will never experience even momentary voltages that might overload the insulation and damage the transformer.

II. METHODOLOGY For this experiment, the power sources are adjusted to +15 Vdc and -15Vdc. The power sources are turned off. The semiconductor devices circuit board is inserted into the base unit. The transistor is located and an ohmmeter is used to test the junction of the diode at CR1. The black (common) meter probe is connected to the test point CR1 and the red meter probe to the test point at the CR1 cathode. The meter probes are reversed by connecting the red probe to the CR1 anode and the black probe to the cathode. The diode and half wave rectification circuit block and connected as shown in Figure 2.6. The power source is turned on and adjusted to -10Vdc. The circuit is connected as in Figure 2-7 and the positive variable supply is adjusted to 10Vdc. Ohms law is used to calculate the needed values. The positive variable supply is set to 0.25Vdc. Diode voltage drops are measured and recorded. The positive applied voltage is increased. At each voltage level, Vr2 is measured and calculated and the values are entered at the appropriate columns of the table. Data computed are compared and verified. For part two of the experiment, the diodes and the half wave rectification circuit block is located and connected as shown in Fig 2-14. The sine wave generator signal leads are connected to the 50 ohm output of the generator. The x10 probes are connected to both channels of the oscilloscope and set to input controls for both channels to ground. Next, the vertical is adjusted for both channels to align both traces exactly on the center horizontal line of the scope graticule. The input controls are switched for both channels to do dc coupling and the calibrated oscilloscope is set for channels 1 and 2 for 50mV/cm sensitivity. The horizontal sweep controls are set for a sweep rate of 0.1 ms/cm. The oscilloscope channel 1 is connected to observe the ac input to the circuit. The output level of the sine wave generator is adjusted to 2V. The rms and average voltage values are calculated and measured. Other observations are also made throughout the experiment. The peak voltage for the oscilloscope was also taken note of, after which the oscilloscope time based was set for 50 micros/cm and both the inout channel selector switches were adjusted to the GND position. Observations were made with regards to the CHOP method. Adjustments were also made by turning the CM switch 7 on and off and other minor adjustments as specified by Fig 2-16.