Diode Circuits Perspective

Dr. Rajan Pandey

Associate Professor, SENSE
Full Wave Rectification
 Full-Wave Rectification
The full-wave rectifier inverts the negative portions of the sine wave so that a unipolar output signal
is generated during both halves of the input sinusoid.
K

• The input to the rectifier consists of a power transformer, in which the input is 230 V, 50 Hz ac signal,
and the two outputs are from a center-tapped secondary winding that provides equal voltages vS.

• The transformer primary has N1 windings, and each half of the secondary has N2 windings. The value
of the vS is 230 (N2 /N1) volts.

• The turns ratio of the transformer (N2 /N1) can be designed to “step down” the input line voltage to a
value that will produce a particular dc output voltage from the rectifier.

• When vS > VK , D1 is on and the output voltage is vO = vS − VK . Similarly for the D2.
Full-Wave Rectification (graphical representation)

PIV = Vsecondary + VR
= Vm + Vm
 Full-Wave Bridge Rectifier

Four diodes are connected

in a bridge configuration

• A bridge rectifier, does not require a center-tapped secondary winding. However, it does
use four diodes, compared to only two in the previous circuit.

• Whereas the center tap of the secondary winding of the circuit is at ground potential, the
secondary winding of the bridge circuit is not directly grounded.
 Full-Wave Rectification: DC output (ideal diodes)

Bridge Rectifier

Full-wave bridge rectifier. Network for the period 0  T/2

of the input voltage vi.

Full-wave rectification produces a greater

DC output:

• Half-wave: Vdc = 0.318Vm

• Full-wave: Vdc = 0.636Vm

Conduction path for the positive region of vi.

Full-Wave Rectification: DC output (ideal diodes)

Conduction path for the negative region of vi.

Input and output waveforms for a full-wave rectifier.

 Full-Wave Rectification: DC output (non-ideal diodes)
If silicon rather than ideal diodes are employed, application of Kirchhoff’s voltage
law around the conduction path results in

vi - VK - vo - VK = 0
vo = vi - 2VK

The peak value of the output voltage vo is therefore

Vo max = Vm - 2VK
The average DC value:
 Full-Wave Rectification

• We can produce negative rectification by reversing the direction of the diodes. The
output voltage will be negative with respect to ground potential.

• During the negative half cycle of vS , the complementary diodes turn on, producing a
negative output voltage.

Full-wave bridge rectifier circuit to Input and output waveforms.

produce negative output voltages.
Summary of Rectifier Circuits

Vm = peak of the AC voltage.

 Filters, Ripple Voltage
• The voltage across the capacitor follows
the initial portion of the signal voltage.

• When the signal voltage reaches its peak positive input voltage and initial
and begins to decrease, the voltage across half-wave rectifier portion of output voltage
the capacitor also starts to decrease, which with an RC filter
means the capacitor starts to discharge.
K

• The only discharge current path is through

the resistor. If the RC time constant is large,
the voltage across the capacitor discharges
exponentially with time. During this time output voltage resulting
from capacitor discharge expanded view of input and output
period, the diode is cut off. voltages assuming capacitor discharge
begins at ωt = π/2
• During the next positive cycle of the input voltage, there is a point at
which the input voltage is greater than the capacitor voltage, and the
diode turns back on. The diode remains on until the input reaches its
peak value and the capacitor voltage is completely recharged.
steady-state input and output voltages
 Filters, Ripple Voltage
The capacitor charges to its peak voltage value when the input signal is at its peak value. As the
input decreases, the diode becomes reverse biased and the capacitor discharges through the
output resistance R.

Output voltage of a full-

wave rectifier with an RC
filter and the ripple
voltage

To a good approximation, the output voltage, which is the voltage across the capacitor or the RC
circuit, can be written as

where t’ is the time after the output has reached its peak value, and RC is the time constant
of the circuit. The smallest output voltage is

where T’ is the discharge time

 Filters, Ripple Voltage
The ripple voltage Vr is defined as the difference between VM and VL , and is determined by

We want the discharge time T‘ to be small compared to the time constant i.e. T‘ << RC. Now
we can expand the exponential in a series and keeping only the linear terms,

The ripple voltage can now be written as

Since the discharge time T‘ depends on the RC time

constant, the above equation is difficult to solve.
However, if the ripple effect is small, then as an
approximation, we can let T’ = Tp , so that

This relation can be used to

where Tp is the time between peak values of the output
determine the capacitor
voltage. For a full-wave rectifier, Tp is one-half the signal
value required for a
period. Therefore, we can relate Tp to the signal frequency,
particular ripple voltage.
 Diode Clippers
• Clippers are networks that employ diodes to “clip” away a portion
of an input signal without distorting the remaining part of the
applied waveform.

• The half-wave rectifier is an example of the simplest form of diode Series clipper.
clipper—one resistor and a diode. Depending on the orientation of
the diode, the positive or negative region of the applied signal is
“clipped” off.

• There are two general categories of clippers: series and parallel.

The series configuration is defined as one where the diode is in
series with the load, whereas the parallel configuration has the
diode in a branch parallel to the load.

• The diode in a series clipper “clips” any voltage that does not
forward bias it!

Half wave rectifier

 Biased Clippers (Series)
Series clipper with a dc supply.

Adding a DC source in series with the clipping diode

changes the effective forward bias of the diode.

• Any positive voltage of the supply will try to turn the diode on by establishing a conventional
current through the diode that matches the arrow in the, diode symbol.
• However, the added dc supply V will oppose that applied voltage and try to keep the diode in the
“off” state.

• The result is that any supply voltage greater than V volts will turn the diode on and conduction
can be established through the load resistor. Assuming an ideal diode, so the turn-on voltage is 0 V.
• The diode will be on for any voltage vi that is greater than V volts and off for any lesser voltage.

• For the “off” condition, the output would be 0 V due to the lack of current, and for the “on”
condition it would be vo = vi - V as determined by Kirchhoff’s voltage law.
 Biased Clippers

Transition
occurs

For the “on” region, the diode is replaced by a short-circuit

equivalent, and the output voltage is defined by (using KVL)

For the “off” region, the diode is an open circuit, ID = 0 mA,

and the output voltage is

For the “on” condition, the output voltage when the applied
voltage has its peak value:
Example: Determine the output waveform for the sinusoidal input shown below:

Step 1: The output is directly across the resistor R.

Step 2: The positive region of vi and the dc supply are both applying “pressure” to turn the
diode on. The diode is in the “on” state for the entire range of positive voltages for vi. Once
the supply goes negative, it would have to exceed the dc supply voltage of 5 V before it
could turn the diode off.
Step 3: The transition from one state to the other will occur when

vi + 5 V = 0 V
or vi = -5 V
Example continued:

Step 4: A horizontal line is drawn in figure below through the applied voltage at the transition
level. For voltages less than -5 V the diode is in the open-circuit state and the output is 0 V, as
shown in the sketch of vo. The peak output voltage will be, using Kirchhoff’s voltage law:

vo = vi + 5 V
Example: Find the output voltage for the network in the previous example if the applied signal
is the square wave.

For vi = 20 V (0T/2) the For vi = -10 V the

diode is in the “on” state, diode in the “off”
and vo = 20 V + 5 V = 25 V. state, and vo = iR R =
(0)R = 0 V.

vo at vi = +20 V. vo at vi = -10 V.
The resulting output voltage

The output voltage will actually be zero at -5V.

 Parallel Clippers

The diode in a parallel clipper circuit

“clips” any voltage that forward bias it.

DC biasing can be added in series with

the diode to change the clipping level.

Half wave rectifier

 Example: Determine vo for the network of figure shown below:

Step 1: The output is defined across the series combination of the 4 V supply and
the diode.

Step 2: The polarity of the dc supply and the direction of the diode strongly
suggest that the diode will be in the “on” state for a good portion of the negative
region of the input signal. When the diode is in “on” state the output voltage will
be directly across the 4 V dc supply. So, when the diode is on the output will be 4
V. When the diode is “off”, the current through the series network will be 0 mA
and the voltage drop across the resistor will be 0 V. That will result in vo = vi.
Example continued:

Step 3: The transition level of the input voltage

can be found by substituting the short-circuit
equivalent and remembering the diode current
is 0 mA at the instant of transition. The result is
a change in state when vi = 4 V.

Step 4: The transition level is drawn along with

vo = 4 V when the diode is on. For vi ≥ 4 V, vo = 4
V, and the waveform is repeated on the output.
 Example: Repeat previous example using a silicon diode with VK = 0.7 V.

Applying Kirchhoff’s voltage law around the output loop in the

clockwise direction, we find that

vi + VK - V = 0
vi = V - VK = 4 V - 0.7 V = 3.3 V

For input voltages greater than 3.3 V, the diode will be an open
circuit (off) and vo = vi. For input voltages less than 3.3 V, the
diode will be in the “on” state, where

vo = 4 V - 0.7 V = 3.3 V

The resulting output waveform appears as shown. The only

effect of VK was to drop the transition level to 3.3 from 4V.