Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, Rae Bareli

Electrical Engineering & Electronics: Electronics Laboratory

EXPERIMENT 4
DC POWER SUPLLY
Introduction
The regulated DC power supply is the principal source in almost all electronic equipment. A commercial DC power supply will consist of a rectifier circuit, a filter circuit to reduce the AC components from the rectifier output, and an electronic regulator to provide a constant voltage, which remains constant irrespective of the fluctuations in the mains supply and load current. The aim of this experiment is to familiarize you with the various parts of a DC power supply and their characteristics. CAUTION: The circuit under test can provide enough power to heat some components and burn them, or blowing the fuse. So ensure twice over that your wiring is correct. At no point of the experiment the outputs of the transformer, rectifier or regulator should be short-circuited.

1. Half-wave Rectifier and Full-wave Rectifier (without Capacitive Filter)

Note: The step-down transformer shown is Fig.3.1 is fitted on the panel. This is a 12V-0-12V (i.e. a centre-tapped) transformer. Because of the centre-tapped configuration, the voltages at points A and B are out of phase with respect to GND. These outputs are brought out to the sockets on the panel through two switches. Switch off the transformer outputs when not in use.

Experiment
HALF-WAVE RECTIFIER

(i). Wire the half-wave rectifier circuit of Fig.3.2. (ii) Observe and sketch the input and the output waveforms.
FULL-WAVE RECTIFIER

(i). Wire the full-wave rectifier circuit of Fig.3.3. (ii) Observe and sketch the input and the output waveforms.

2. Half-wave Rectifier and Full-wave Rectifier (with a Capacitive Filter)

In this section, you will study the effect of capacitive filters on ripple voltage and peak diode current. The 10 ohm resistor in the following circuits is used to observe the diode current waveforms. Use one channel of the DSO to observe the output voltage and other to observe the diode current simultaneously.

Experiment
HALF-WAVE RECTIFIER

(i). Wire the half-wave rectifier circuit of Fig.3.4. (ii) Use C=100 F. Observe and sketch the output and diode-current waveforms. (iii) Measure the peak-to-peak ripple voltage and the peak value of diode current. (iv) Repeat steps (ii) and (iii) for C=330 F and C=1000 F. (v) From the above observations comment on the use of Capacitive filters in an unregulated DC powersupply in regard to the ripple voltage and peak diode current.
FULL-WAVE RECTIFIER

(i) Wire the full-wave rectifier circuit of Fig.3.5. (ii) Repeat steps (ii) and (iii) of the above experiment for C=330 F and C=1000 F. (iii) Output of the above circuits (half-wave and full-wave) with capacitive filters, which one gives lower ripple voltage for a specified peak diode current and load? Justify your answer.

Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, Rae Bareli

3. Zener Regulator
Capacitive filters are commonly employed in DC power supplies. However, as observed by you, increasing C to reduce the ripple voltage is not a good idea. Hence you need to employ other techniques to get a ripple-free output voltage. One technique is to employ zener diodes to get regulated voltages as shown in Fig. 3.6. You will study the characteristics of a simple Zener Regulator.

4. IC Regulator
Commercial DC power supplies normally make use of Integrated Circuit (IC) regulators. Depending on whether they are adjustable-voltage power supplies or fixed-voltage ones, they use adjustable voltage regulators or fixed voltage regulators. LM309 is an example of an adjustable IC regulator, whereas LM78xx, LM79xx series ICs are examples of fixed IC regulators (xx is the output voltage of the regulator). IC regulators are inexpensive and can give constant output voltages for large variations in the main supply voltages and load currents. IC regulators incorporate zener diodes to get accurate and temperature stabilized reference voltages. Regulator ICs also employ error amplifiers (which compare the output voltage with the reference voltage and modify the output) and a series-pass element (generally a BJT) to achieve constant output voltages. Details of such regulators are beyond the scope of this course. (Most books on Linear Integrated Circuits give such details. Interested students may refer to The Art of Electronics: Paul Horowitz and Winfield Hill). For example LM7805 IC Fig. 3.7, this is a 3-terminal +5V regulator. It comes in various packages for different load current requirements, such as 500mA, 1A, 5A, etc. A very useful feature of this IC is its Auto thermal shutdown, which means that when the temperature of the IC increases above a certain value (in general due to short circuits or high load currents), it automatically shuts down the output voltage thus preventing IC damage.

Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, Rae Bareli

7805

Fig. 3.1

RL=1k

RL=1k

Fig. 3.2

Fig. 3.3

RL=1k RS=10

RL=1k

RS=10

Fig. 3.4

Fig. 3.5

RS=100 RL=1K VO RL=100 VO

Fig. 3.6

Fig. 3.7