Scribd
Upload
5 views4 pages

CHEA 3205L Experiment 5-1

This document outlines Experiment 5, which investigates the operation of a half-wave rectifier, comparing ideal and real scenarios, including the impact of a filtering capacitor. The procedure involves assembling circuits, measuring output voltages, and analyzing the effects of diode orientation and capacitance on rectification. Additionally, it includes questions to assess understanding of the experiment's findings.

Uploaded by

John Richmond Martus
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
5 views4 pages

CHEA 3205L Experiment 5-1

This document outlines Experiment 5, which investigates the operation of a half-wave rectifier, comparing ideal and real scenarios, including the impact of a filtering capacitor. The procedure involves assembling circuits, measuring output voltages, and analyzing the effects of diode orientation and capacitance on rectification. Additionally, it includes questions to assess understanding of the experiment's findings.

Uploaded by

John Richmond Martus
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Experiment 5

Half-wave Rectifier
Objective:
The goal of this exercise is to investigate the ideal versus real operation of a basic half-wave rectifier. The
effects of a filtering capacitor are included.

Theory Overview:
The primary function of a rectifier is to turn an incoming AC waveform into a pulsating DC waveform. This
can be achieved by simply blocking one of the two polarities from reaching the load. This is called a half-
wave rectifier. A rectifier might be used as part of an AC to DC power supply but might also be used as part
of a signal processing system. Ideally, a diode will behave as either an open or a closed switch depending
on the polarity of the applied signal. This means that one polarity can be allowed through while the other
can be blocked, perfect for this situation. In reality, the diode will require a forward turn- on potential which
results in a portion of the allowed signal being lost (e.g., the first 0.7 volts will be lost when using a silicon
device). This fact makes a simple diode rectifier ineffective when used with very small signal amplitudes.
Finally, in order to “fill the gap” where the blocked polarity would have been, a capacitor can be used to
store some of the energy at the peak to be released during the gap. The higher the capacitance value, the
more effective the smoothing will be.

Materials and Equipment:


(1) Dual channel oscilloscope
(1) Analog trainer
(1) DMM
(1) breadboard
(1) Signal diode (1N914, 1N4148)
(1) 10 k Ω resistor ¼ watt actual:
(1) 22 nF capacitor actual:
(1) 470 nF capacitor actual:
Connecting wires

1N4148/1N914 Datasheet: https://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/1N914A-D.pdf

CHEA 3205L Experiment 5 ttan2025 (adopted from J. Fiore) Page 1


Schematics

Figure 1

Figure 2

Procedure

Simple Rectifier
1. Consider the circuit of Figure 1. For an input voltage significantly larger than 0.7 volts, the diode will
be forward biased for the positive half of the input sine wave. Therefore, all of the input signal (less
0.7 volts) will appear across the load resistor, R. Conversely, during the negative polarity of the input,
the diode will be open, thus blocking any current and producing no voltage across the load.

2. Assemble the circuit of Figure 1 using Vin = 10 volts peak at 1 kHz and R = 10 kΩ. Set the
oscilloscope inputs to DC coupled. Place one oscilloscope probe across the input generator and a
second probe across the load resistor. Record the peak amplitude of the output load waveform in
Table 1. Also, save an image of the scope trace showing both the input and output waveforms.

3. Measure the load voltage with the DMM (DC volts) and record this in Table 1.

4. Reverse the diode and repeat steps 2 and 3.

5. Reverse the diode so that it is back to the original orientation. Reduce the input to 800 mV peak and
repeat step 2.

CHEA 3205L Experiment 5 ttan2025 (adopted from J. Fiore) Page 2


Filter Capacitor
6. The circuit of Figure 2 adds a filtering capacitor across the load. This should help to “fill the gaps”
created by the missing portions of the waveform. Build the circuit of Figure 2 using Vin = 10 volts
peak at 1 kHz, R = 10 kΩ and C = 22 nF. Making sure that the scope inputs are DC coupled, place
scope probes across the input and load, and capture the resulting image. Record the peak value in
Table 2.

7. Measure the load voltage with the DMM (DC volts) and record this in Table 2.

8. Replace C with the 470 nF capacitor and repeat steps 5 and 6.

Computer Simulation
9. Perform a Transient Analysis simulation of the circuits shown in Figures 1 and 2, and compare the
resulting waveforms to those captured from the oscilloscope.

Data Tables

Variation Vload peak DMM DCV


Original
Reversed Diode
800 mV Input X

Table 1

Capacitor Vload peak DMM DCV


22 nF
470 nF

Table 2

CHEA 3205L Experiment 5 ttan2025 (adopted from J. Fiore) Page 3


Questions
1. How well do the peak values of the load voltage track the peak values of the input voltage?

2. What are the limits of the half-wave circuit at rectifying small amplitude signals? What might
be done to improve its effectiveness?

3. What is the effect of reversing the orientation of the diode? How does this affect the DC
value measured by the DMM?

4. What is the effect of adding capacitance to the circuit? How does this affect the DC value
measured by the DMM?

5. How would the waveforms differ if the oscilloscope inputs had been AC coupled instead of
DC coupled?

CHEA 3205L Experiment 5 ttan2025 (adopted from J. Fiore) Page 4

You might also like