Objectives:

1. Construct half-wave and full-wave rectifier circuits and compare the input and output voltage for each circuit. 2. Plot the waveforms of the output voltage by using OrCad Pspice and compare with the results obtained from oscilloscope.

Summary of Theory:
Rectification is the conversion of alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC). This involves a device that only allows one-way flow of electrons. 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. When AC is applied to a diode, the diode is forward-biased for on-half of the cycle and reverse-biased for the other half cycle. During the negative half cycle of the input voltage, diode becomes reverse biased. Half-wave rectifier AC Input Voltage DC Output Voltage

Equipment/Materials Required:
1K Resistor Two 1N4001 diodes Multi-meter Power supply Oscilloscope

Half-wave Rectifier Procedure:

1. We checked the diode voltage (VB) by using volt-meter. For calculation purposes. 2. We created half-wave rectifier circuit by using a bread-board. First, we connected one diode in series with 1K and voltage source. (shown in Fig. 1)

D1 D1N4001

V1 VOFF = 0 VAMPL = 6.3 V FREQ = 60 Hz R1 1k

(Figure 1) 3. By using a power supply, we applied 6.3V peak sine wave at a frequency of 60 Hz to the input. 4. Next, we use the Oscilloscope to observe R1, the voltage across the resistor. From the oscilloscope we observed following results.

Half-wave

Vs-Peak 6.405 V

Vo-Peak 5.562 V

VDC 2.04 V

Expected VDC 1.9 V

% Error 8.82%

Calculations:
VB = 0.5748 V

 

 

Full-wave Rectifier Circuit

A Full Wave Rectifier is a circuit, which converts an ac voltage into a pulsating dc voltage using both half cycles of the applied ac voltage. It uses two diodes of which one conducts during one half cycle while the other conducts during the other half cycle of the applied ac voltage. During the positive half cycle of the input voltage, diode D1 becomes forward biased and D2 becomes reverse biased. Hence D1 conducts and D2 remains OFF. The load current flows through D1 and the voltage drop across RL will be equal to the input voltage. During the negative half cycle of the input voltage, diode D1 becomes reverse biased and D2 becomes forward biased. Hence D1 remains OFF and D2 conducts. The load current flows through D2 and the voltage drop across R1 will be equal to the input voltage. AC Input Voltage DC Output Voltage

Procedure:
1. We checked the diodes voltages (VB) by using volt-meter. For calculation purposes. 2. We created full-wave rectifier circuit by using a bread-board. First, we connected one diode (D1), 1K (R1) and (D2) in parallel combination with two voltage source in series. (shown in Fig. 2)
D1 D1N4001 V1 VOFF = 0 VAMPL = 6.3 V FREQ = 60 Hz R2 1k

VOFF = 0 VAMPL = 6.3 V FREQ = 60 Hz

D1N4001 D1

(Figure 2) 3. By using a power supply, we applied two 6.3V peak sine wave at a frequency of 60 Hz to the input. 4. Next, we use the oscilloscope to observe R1, the voltage across the resistor. From the oscilloscope we observed following results.

Full-wave

Vs-Peak 6.280 V

Vo-Peak 5.50 V

VDC 3.674 V

Expected VDC 3.6 V

% Error 1.2%

Calculations:
VB = 0.5748 V

     

Conclusion:
The Rectifier circuits are used primarily for the conversion of alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC). By doing these experiments in the lab, in half-wave rectifier circuit we can 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. In a full-wave rectifier circuit we observed that in first half-cycle, when the source voltage polarity is positive (+) on top and negative (-) on bottom. At this time, only the top diode is conducting; the bottom diode is blocking current, and the resistor sees the first half of the sine wave, positive on top and negative on bottom. During the next half-cycle, the AC polarity reverses. The resistor still sees half of a sine wave, of the same polarity as before: positive (+) on top and negative (-) on bottom. This is reason you see continues pulsing waveform of the output voltage.

Question: Why the frequency at the output rectified sin wave is the same as input sin wave? Answer: Because 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 resistor because the diode is on reverse mode. As a result, the negative sin wave is cancelled leaving only the dc pulsing waveform and that s why you see the same frequency at the input/output.