Rectifier Circuits
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
related wiki pages : Electronic Theory, capacitors. Inductors, Voltage, Current, Oscillator Design, Power Supply Design. Filters
What is a Rectifier
A rectifier converts Alternating Current (AC) to Direct Current (DC). This is usually achieved by using a diode, which allows current to flow only in one direction.
Half-wave Rectifier
copied from Wikipedia under the licensing agreement of the author.
The circuit above illustrates the effect of a single diode in an AC line. The effect is that half of the AC sine curve is "chopped off". This is a very inefficient way of rectifying AC, but may be used to reduce power to a resistive load R.
Full-wave Rectifier
Two diode - centre tapped transformer
Four diode or bridge rectifier
