EGR220 Than & Bhavin Lab #6

Introduction and Objectives the transfer function of super-diode in XY mode.

One of the most applications of diodes are rectifier

circuits, which converts AC to DC, and these designs
are used in power-supply. In fact, diodes rectifier forms
the fundamental building block of the DC power
supplies for electronic devices [1]. However, in
instrumentation applications, the signal to be rectified
can be very small, and needs very precise transfer
characteristics. For this purpose, we need super- diode.
Therefore, in this lab, we were instructed to measure
and analyze behavior of rectifier circuits, both half-
wave and full wave (bridge) rectifier and peak rectifier. Figure 2: Transfer Function of Circuit 1(100Hz)
The primary objectives of this lab are:
The advantage of this circuit design (precision
1. To analyze and understand the nature of half- half-wave rectifier) over regular half-wave
wave super-diode rectifier
rectifier design was its precision. Since the
2. To be able to implement AC Volt Meter with
super-diode voltage drop in Si diode is around 0.7V, if we
3. To be able to understand the nature of full- provided the input voltage around 0.7V, we could
wave rectifier with super-diode. not get the proper transfer function in regular
rectifier. However, this is not the case in
Equipments and Components used precision rectifier.

In this lab, the equipments and components we used
are:- ICs: L M 1458 (x2), Diodes: 1N914 (x2)
Resistors: 1KΩ (x3), l0KΩ (x5), Capacitor: 47μF
(x1), a breadboard, a waveform generator, ±20V
power supply, a multi-meter, an Oscilloscope to
capture the I-V curve, wires and cords.
But the circuit design in figure 1 has its own
drawback. The transfer function is also limited
by the input signal frequency. At 600 Hz, because
of time delay, we could see the distortion of
transfer function.

Procedures
Procedure 1: Analyzing the Nature of of Half-
Wave Super-Diode Rectifier

+
vout
vin= -
2sin2(100)t Figure 3: Transfer Function of Circuit 1 (600Hz)
R=1k
In oder to overcome this, we implement the
circuit design in figure 3.
Figure 1
By giving input voltage (2Sin2π 100t), we tried to get
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Figure 3: Alternative Circuit Desing
In this design, we can also control the slop line of
the transfer function by varying R1 and R2. If R1
and R2 are equal, we got Vout = -Vin .
Figure 4: Transfer Function of Circuit 2 (100Hz)
Figure 5: Transfer Function of Circuit 2 (600Hz)
We could see that at 600Hz, the transfer function
was still linear enough even though there existed
Than & Bhavin Lab #6
some distortion because of Op-Amp Saturation.
Procedure 2: Implementing AC Volt Meter
with Super Diode
Figure 6
In this circuit design, the precision rectifier was
followed by low pass filter. The average output
voltage of rectifier is (Vp/π) (R2/R1) and
harmonics of the frequency. The low pass filter
remove those harmonics and the final output
voltage will become DC with a value
Vout = -(Vp/π)(R2/R1)(R4/R3) (3)
Therefore, the above circuit can be used to read
rms value for input sinusoids.
Figure 7: Transfer Function of Circuit 3 (4Vp
1kHz)
When we measured the output voltage, we got -
1.28V. We calculated the input peak voltage and
got 4.01V. When we measured the input voltage
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EGR220 Than & Bhavin Lab #6

directly, we got 2.82V. Therefore, the error is

1.54V.

Error Vs. Input Voltage

3.5

2.5

2 Figure 9: V1 (Transfer Function)

Error

1.5 Error

0.5

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Vin

Procedure 3: Analyzing the Nature of of Full-

Wave Super-Diode Rectifier
Figure 10: V2 (Transfer Function)

Figure 11: Vout (Tranfer Function)

Figure 8
We built the circuit the by providing Vin = 5V
with frequency of 200Hz, R1 = R2 = 1kΩ and RL
= 10KΩ. After than, we captured the screen image
of V1, V2 and Vo.
To put it simply, the circuit in figure 8 operates as
an absolute value circuit, as in absolute value
function. By measurement, we found that V1 =
Vin and V2 = -Vin, and Vo is the summation of
V1 and V2.

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Discussion
The super diodes are very useful in building
rectifier circuits for instrumentation applications,
although regular rectifiers are useful in power
supply applications. In addition to that, we could
even built AC Voltmeter with super diode and low
pass filter. We can also build peak precision
rectifier with super diodes.

References
[1] Sedra, Adel S., and Smith. Kenneth C. “Microelectronics
Circuits”. 5th. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

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