16.03.

2018

MEE210 Electrical Machines

Diodes and Rectifiers

Rectification
Rectification
Electricity is transferred from power plants to houses or business as alternate
current because of decreasing losses during transfer.
On the other hand, semi conductors use direct current. Thus, it is needed to be
transformed into the direct current.
A rectifier is a circuit which converts the Alternating Current (AC) input power into
a Direct Current (DC) output power.

Rectifier

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Rectification Transformers

Transformers convert AC electricity from one voltage

to another with little loss of power.
The input coil is called the primary and the output coil
is called the secondary.
There is no electrical connection between the two
coils, instead they are linked by an alternating
magnetic field created in the soft-iron core of the
transformer
The ratio of the number of turns on each coil, called
the turns ratio, determines the ratio of the voltages

NS VS IP
K trafo   
NP VP IS

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Rectification
Diodes
Diodes are basic unidirectional semiconductor
devices that will only allow current to flow
through them in one direction only, acting
more like a one way electrical valve.

Unlike a resistor, a diode does not behave

linearly with respect to the applied voltage as
it has an exponential I-V relationship and
therefore can not be described simply by using
Ohm's law

Diodes are made from a single piece

of Semiconductor material which has a
positive "P-region" at one end and a
negative "N-region" at the other, and which
has a resistivity value somewhere between
that of a conductor and an insulator

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Diodes
Semiconductors
Semiconductors materials such as silicon (Si),
germanium (Ge) and gallium arsenide (GaAs),
have electrical properties somewhere in the
middle, between those of a "conductor" and
an "insulator".

They are not good conductors nor good

insulators (hence their name is "semi"-
conductors).

They have very few "free electrons" because

their atoms are closely grouped. That is due to
the strength of the molecular bounds
However, their ability to conduct electricity can
be greatly improved by adding certain
"impurities" to this crystalline structure
thereby, producing more free electrons than
holes

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Semiconductors
Silicon
The most commonly used semiconductor
basics material by far is silicon. Its atomic
number is 14

Silicon has four valence electrons in its

outermost shell

The structure of the bond between the two

silicon atoms is such that each atom shares
one electron with its neighbour

This bound is very stable and called as co

valent bound crystals of pure silicon (or
germanium) are therefore good insulators.

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Semiconductors
N-type
In order for our silicon crystal to conduct
electricity, we need to introduce an impurity
atom such as Arsenic, Antimony or Phosphorus

These atoms have five outer electrons in their

outermost orbital to share with neighbouring
atoms.

This allows four out of the five orbital electrons

to bond with its neighbouring silicon atoms
leaving one "free electron" to become mobile
when an electrical voltage is applied.

The resulting semiconductor material has

extra electrons, each with a negative charge,
and is therefore referred to as an "N-type"
material

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Semiconductors
P-type
Another way to make silicon crystal conduct
electricity is to add impurity atoms such
as Aluminium, Boron or Indium, which have
only three valence electrons.

Therefore, a complete connection is not

possible, giving the semiconductor material an
abundance of positively charged carriers
known as "holes" in the structure of the crystal
where electrons are effectively missing

The doping of such atoms causes conduction

to consist mainly of positive charge carriers
resulting in a "P-type" material with the
positive holes

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Diodes
Semiconductors– PN Junction
These semiconductor N and P-type
materials do very little on their own as
they are electrically neutral.
But when we join (or fuse) them
together these two materials behave in
a very different way producing what is
generally known as a PN Junction.

When the N and P-type semiconductor

materials are first joined together a
diffusion phenomena occurs.
The free electrons from the N-type
impurity atoms begin to migrate across
this newly formed junction to fill up theEventually a state of equilibrium (electrically
holes in the P-type material. neutral situation) will occur producing
a "potential barrier" zone around the area of
the junction This area around the junction is
now called the Depletion Layer.(gerilim seti

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Diodes
PN Junction Diode
However, if we were to make electrical
connections at the ends of both the N-
type and the P-type materials and then
connect them to a battery source.

This additional energy source

overcomes the barrier resulting in free
charges being able to cross the
depletion region from one side to the
other.

The behaviour of the PN junction with

regards to the potential barrier width
produces an asymmetrical conducting
two terminal device, better known as
the Junction Diode

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Diodes
PN Junction Diode Operation
Reverse biased
When a diode is connected in a Reverse
Bias condition, a positive voltage is applied to
the N-type material and a negative voltage is
applied to the P-type material.

Forward biased
When a diode is connected in a Forward
Bias condition, a negative voltage is applied to
the N-type material and a positive voltage is
applied to the P-type material.

However, unlike a resistor, a diode does not

behave linearly with respect to the applied
voltage as the diode has an exponential I-V
relationship

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Diodes
Types of Diodes
A photodiode consists of an active p-n
junction which is operated in reverse bias.
When light falls on the junction, a reverse
current flows which is proportional to
the illuminance.
The linear response to light makes it an
element in useful photodetectors for some
applications. It is also used as the active
element in light-activated switches.

When the applied forward voltage on the

diode of the Light Emitting Diode (LED) drives
the electrons and holes into the active region
between the n-type and p-type material, the
energy can be converted into infrared or
visible photons. This implies that the electron-
hole pair drops into a more stable bound
state, releasing energy on the order of
electron volts by emission of a photon.
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Diodes
Types of Diodes
Rectifier diodes are used in power supplies to convert Maximum
Maximum
Diode Reverse
alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), a Current
Voltage
process called rectification. 1N4001 1A 50V
1N4002 1A 100V

They are also used elsewhere in circuits where a large 1N4007 1A 1000V

current must pass through the diode. All rectifier 1N5401 3A 100V
1N5408 3A 1000V
diodes are made from silicon and therefore have a
forward voltage drop of 0.7V.

A Zener diode is a diode which allows current to flow in

the forward direction in the same manner as an ideal
diode, but will also permit it to flow in the reverse
direction when the voltage is above a certain value
known as the breakdown voltage or zener voltage.
the diode is reverse-biased, and intentionally to exploit
this diode's reverse breakdown properties

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Rectification
Rectifiers
A rectifier is a circuit which converts the Alternating Current (AC) input power into
a Direct Current (DC) output power.

Power (rectifiers) diodes can be used individually as above or connected together

to produce a variety of rectifier circuits such as "Half-Wave", "Full-Wave" or as
"Bridge Rectifiers".

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Rectification
Half Wave Rectifier
During each "positive" half cycle of the AC sine wave, the diode is forward
biased as the anode is positive with respect to the cathode resulting in current
flowing through the diode. Since the DC load is resistive, voltage across the load
resistor will therefore be the same as the supply voltage.

During each "negative" half cycle of the AC sine wave, the diode is reverse
biased as the anode is negative with respect to the cathode therefore, No current
flows through the diode or circuit and no voltage appears across it.

Vout  0.318 Vmax  0.45Vrms

This type of circuit is called a "half-wave" rectifier because it passes only half of
the incoming AC power supply

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Rectification
Half Wave Rectifier
When rectification is used to provide a direct voltage power supply from an
alternating source, the amount of ripple can be further reduced by using larger
value capacitors. This process is called as smoothing.

The capacitor charges with ascending part of the positive half wave and it starts
to discharge until the next positive half wave.

Size of the capacitor changes the deviation. Due to longer or shorter time
constant.

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Rectification
Full Wave Rectifier
In a Full Wave Rectifier circuit, two diodes are used, one for each half of the cycle.
A transformer is used whose secondary winding is split equally into two halves
with a common centre tapped connection, (C).

This configuration results in each diode conducting in turn when its anode
terminal is positive with respect to the transformer centre point C producing an
output during both half-cycles, twice that for the half wave rectifier.

Vout  0.637 Vmax  0.9Vrms

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Rectification
Full Wave Rectifier
Consider the 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 load “sees” the first half of the sine wave, positive on top and negative on
bottom.
Only the top half of the transformer's secondary winding carries current during this
half-cycle

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Rectification
Full Wave Rectifier
During the next half-cycle, the AC polarity reverses.
Now, the other diode and the other half of the transformer's secondary winding
carry current while the portions of the circuit formerly carrying current during the
last half-cycle sit idle.
The load still “sees” half of a sine wave, of the same polarity as before
One disadvantage of this full-wave rectifier design is the necessity of a transformer
with a center-tapped secondary winding.

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Rectification
Bridge Rectifier
Another type of circuit that produces the same output waveform as the full wave
rectifier circuit is that of the Full Wave Bridge Rectifier. This type of single phase
rectifier uses four individual rectifying diodes connected in a closed loop "bridge"
configuration to produce the desired output.
The main advantage of this bridge circuit is that it does not require a special centre
tapped transformer. The single secondary winding is connected to one side of the
diode bridge network and the load to the other side

Vout  0.637 Vmax  0.9Vrms

However in reality, during each half cycle the current flows through two diodes instead of just one so the amplitude of
the output voltage is two voltage drops ( 2 x 0.7 = 1.4V ) less than the input V MAX amplitude

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Rectification
Bridge Rectifier
During the positive half cycle of the supply, diodes D1 and D2 conduct in series
while diodes D3 and D4 are reverse biased and the current flows through the load
as shown below.

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Rectification
Bridge Rectifier
During the negative half cycle of the supply, diodes D3 and D4 conduct in series, but
diodes D1 and D2 switch "OFF" as they are now reverse biased. The current flowing
through the load is the same direction as before.

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Rectification
Bridge Rectifier

during each half cycle the current flows through two diodes
instead of just one so the amplitude of the output voltage is
two voltage drops ( 2 x 0.7 = 1.4V ) less than the input V MAX
amplitude

The smoothing capacitor converts

the full-wave rippled output of the
rectifier into a smooth DC output
voltage.
Generally for DC power supply
circuits the smoothing capacitor is
an Aluminium Electrolytic type
that has a capacitance value of
100uF or more with repeated DC
voltage pulses from the rectifier
charging up the capacitor to peak
voltage.

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Rectification
Voltage Regulators
Voltage regulators dimnishes the oscilations in rectifier circuits. In fact they are
more generally used for to obtain stable voltage in wide variety of electronic
circuits.

Negative voltage regulators are available, mainly for use in dual supplies

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