NORTH SOUTH UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING
EEE 111 / ETE 111 – Lab
Analog Electronics – 1
Course Section :6
Faculty : AQU
Lab Instructor : Mehrab Hossain Likhonn
Lab Report
Experiment No : 03
Experiment Name : Full-Wave Rectifier Circuit
Date of Performance : 19/02/2025
Date of Submission :26/02/2025
Group No : 7
Group Member’s Name ID Writer Signature
1. Zaid Zarifur Rahman 2131819642 □
2. Sibgat Ul Islam 2111920642 □
3. Nazifa Tahsin 2132652642 □
4. Abdullah Al Towhid 2031045642 □
5. □
Experiment Name:
Full-Wave Rectifier Circuit
Objective:
Study of different diode rectifier circuits.
Theory:
From the previous diode experiment, we observed that a diode will allow current to flow in
forward bias while not letting current flow in reverse bias condition. A Rectifier utilizes
that characteristic and “rectifies” the negative half cycle of an AC signal into a positive half
cycle, turning the signal to a DC signal.
The Voltage Converter/Transformer is a component that can step-up or step-down the
voltage of an input AC signal (DOES NOT WORK FOR DC SIGNALS!!!). It consists
of a primary coil and a secondary coil. The number of the coils on each differ based on
application; step-up transformers have greater number of secondary coil turns, while step-
down transformers have greater number of primary coil turns.
Figure 1.3: Physical Appearance of a 12V Transformer.
Source:https://techshopbd.com/detail/537/Transformer_12V_(1A)_techshop_bangladesh
Diode rectifier can be categorized in two major types. They are -
1. Half-wave rectifier.
2. Full-wave rectifier
A Half Wave Rectifier as seen in the figure below is a circuit utilizing a single diode and
transformer. The negative half cycles are brought to zero, so the average DC voltage is
lower, and the load receives approximately half the input power.
Figure 1.1 (a): Diagram of a Half Wave Rectifier.
Source: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/rectifier
Figure 1.1 (b): Output of a Half Wave Rectifier.
A Full Wave Rectifier on the other hand, as seen in the figure below, is a circuit utilizing
multiple diodes and a transformer. The negative half cycles are now rectified to become
positive half cycles, so the load receives majority of the input power.
Full Wave rectifiers seen below are:
a) Full Wave rectifier using center-tapped transformer:
Two diodes will be connected to the ends of the transformer and the load will
be between the diode and center tap. The circuit diagram is show below in figure
1.2(a). However, this variant of the FW rectifier becomes bulky and expensive
due to the use of the transformer.
b) Full Wave bridge rectifier:
The issues from the prior FW rectifier are overcome with by the FW bridge
rectifier as seen in figure 1.2 (b). Four diodes connected in a bridge
connection serve the same purpose and produce the same results, but
requiring less space and being more cost effective by forgoing the use of a
transformer.
Figure 1.2 (a): Diagram of a Full Wave Rectifier.
Source: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/rectifier
Figure 1.2 (b): Diagram of a Full Wave Bridge Rectifier.
Source: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/rectifier
Figure 1.2 (c): Output of a Full Wave Rectifier.
Despite the improvements, the output is not a smooth DC waveform; ripples are produced
in the output. This ripple can be reduced by using a filter capacitor across the load, while
also increasing the average voltage. The output waveform can be seen below:
Figure 1.3: Rectifier Circuit with Filter Capacitor
Equipment List:
Serial NO. Components Specification Quantity
1. Diode 1N4007 4 pieces
2. Resistor 10kΩ 1 piece
3. Capacitor 0.22 μF 1 piece each
1 μF
10 μF
4. Signal Generator 1 unit
5. Digital Multimeter 1 unit
6. Oscilloscope 1 unit
7. Bread Board 1 unit
8. Wires As required
9. Transformer 12V-1A-50Hz
Circuit Diagram:
Figure 2.1 (a) and (b): Full Wave Rectifier without and with Capacitor. Source: Lab Manual for
Experiment 03
Data, Results and Graph:
Vin (Vpp) Vin (max) Vin (min) Frequency, f Period, T = 1/f
10.3 V 5.12 V 5.20 V 1 kHz 1 ms
Table 1: Experimental Data from Full Wave Rectifier without Capacitor, Input data.
Figure 3.1 (a): Input graph of FW Rectifier without Capacitor. Horizontal Axis represents time (ms),
and the Vertical axis represents Vin (V)
Vout (Vpp) Vout (max) Vout (min)
4.16 V 4.16 V 0.00 V
\
Table 2: Experimental Data from Full Wave Rectifier without Capacitor, Output data.
Figure 3.1 (b): Output graph of FW Rectifier without Capacitor. Horizontal Axis represents time
(ms), and the Vertical axis represents Vin (V)
Vout (Vpp) Vout (max) Vout (min)
0.560 V 3.92 V 3.36 V
Table 3: Experimental Data from Full Wave Rectifier with Capacitor, Output data.
Figure 3.2: Output graph of FW Rectifier with Capacitor. Horizontal Axis represents time (ms), and
the Vertical axis represents Vin (V)
Results and Discussion:
During the experiment, we set up a Full Wave Bridge Rectifier circuit along with a step-down transformer.
We observed and recorded values of both rectifiers with and without the capacitor. We could see that the negative
half cycles were converted to positive half cycles, but ripples remained. This was combatted via the addition of a
capacitor in parallel to the load to further flatten the ripple effect. The strength of this flattening was positively
influenced by the capacitance of the capacitor used, as seen from the oscilloscope readings and waveform. The Vpp
of the rectifier with capacitor was lesser than without, showing that the ripple was largely reduced and a stable DC
signal being generated.
Conclusion:
From this experiment we learned about the Full Wave Rectifier. FW Rectifiers are better than Half Wave
Rectifiers in that FW Rectifiers can convert the negative half cycles to positive half cycles, retaining more power
than HW Rectifiers. Full Wave Rectifiers can also be improved by connecting diodes in a bridge pattern and
adding a capacitor to fix the ripple in the output waveform, and produce a more stable DC signal.
References:
