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DEPARTMENT OF AVIONICS
ENGINEERING
SUBJECT : Electronics Devices and Circuits Lab
SUBJECT CODE : 208159
LAB NO : 03

TITLE : Diode Applications as Half wave

rectification

SUBMITTED TO : Ms. Anila Ali Ahmed

SEMESTER : 4th
SECTION : B

Group member 1 Group member 2 Group member 3

NAME Dua Naseem Ifrah gohar khan Mahnoor
REGISTRATION # 220701014 220701058 220701002
LAB REPORT 03 03 03
PERFORMANCE
TOTAL MARKS

Deadline 0830 Hrs, 15th March 2024

Date of submission 12th March, 2024

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Experiment # 03 Page 1 of 12
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General Safety rules:

Execution of lab experiments is more important than performing accurate experiments
and constructing neat circuits. The first step towards safety is to know the lab itself which
means you must know where the fire extinguishers, electric main safety breaker are and
where the emergency exits. You should also be aware of all the equipment present in the
lab. Following are some rules which you must follow to avoid any unfortunate event.
• Do not wear rings, watches, bracelets, necklaces, and other metal objects in the
lab.
• Make sure your hands are dry
• Make sure your shoes are dry
• Always power down the electrical equipment, disconnect the power cords and
wait for a few seconds before touching the exposed wires
• Make sure all the experimental setup is disconnected from the power supply
before turning it on
• Even if your circuit is of 5 volts, do not consider it less dangerous
• Do not forget to turn off all the equipment after the experiment
• Always get instructions on how to use the new equipment
• Be careful with the soldering iron station, it can cause serious burns and fire
• While using the soldering iron, place it in the special iron stand, not on the table

Title: Diode Applications as Half Wave Rectification

Objectives:
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After completing this exercise, the students will be able to,

1. Observe the working of a diode as half wave rectifier.

2. Construct and analyze the output of rectifier circuit with and without filter
capacitor.

Equipment Required:

1. Digital Multimeter
2. Oscilloscope
3. Bread Board
4. Diode (1N4007)
5. Resistors 1k
6. Trainer set with 9V ac source

Theory/Background:

The process of converting an alternating current into direct current is known as

rectification. The unidirectional conduction property of semiconductor diodes (junction
diodes) is used for rectification. Rectifiers are of two types: (a) Half wave rectifier and
(b) Full wave rectifier. In a halfwave rectifier circuit (Fig. 1), during the positive half-
cycle of the input, the diode is forward biased and conducts. Current flows through the
load and a voltage is developed across it. During the negative half-cycle, it is reverse bias
and does not conduct. Therefore, in the negative half cycle of the supply, no current flows
in the load resistor as no voltage appears across it. Thus the dc voltage across the load is
sinusoidal for the first half cycle only and a pure a.c. input signal is converted into a
unidirectional pulsating output signal.

Since the diode conducts only in one half-cycle (0-π), it can be verified that the d.c.
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component in the output is Vmax/π, where Vmax is the peak value of the voltage. Thus,

𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝑉𝑑𝑐 = = 0.318𝑉𝑚𝑎𝑥
𝜋
The current flowing through the resistor, R 𝐼𝑑𝑐 = 𝑉𝑅𝑑𝑐 and power consumed by the load,

𝑃 = 𝐼𝑑𝑐2𝑅.

Ripple factor: As the voltage across the load resistor is only present during the positive
half of the cycle, the resultant voltage is "ON" and "OFF" during every cycle resulting in
a low average dc value. This variation on the rectified waveform is called "Ripple" and is
an undesirable feature. The ripple factor is a measure of purity of the d.c. output of a
rectifier and is defined as

𝑟 = 𝑉𝑎𝑐

√ .=√ √
𝑉𝑑𝑐

In case of a half-wave rectifier Vrms = Vmax/2 = 0.5Vmax

Rectification Efficiency: Rectification efficiency, η, is a measure of the percentage of

total a.c. power input converted to useful d.c. power output.

𝜂 = 𝑑. 𝑐. 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑/𝑎. 𝑐. 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡

= 𝑉𝑑𝑐𝐼𝑑𝑐/𝑉𝑎𝑐𝐼𝑎𝑐

=𝐼 2
𝑎𝑐2𝐼/𝑑𝑐(𝑟 𝑑𝑅+𝑅) = (0.
(50𝑉.318𝑚𝑎𝑥𝑉)𝑚𝑎𝑥2(1+) 2
𝑟𝑅𝑑) = (01.+405𝑟𝑅𝑑)

Here 𝑟𝑑 is the forward resistance of diode. Under the assumption of no diode loss (rd<<)
the rectification efficiency in case of a half wave rectifier is approximately 40.5%.

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Filters: The output of a rectifier gives a pulsating d.c. signal (Fig.1) because of presence
of some a.c. components whose frequency is equal to that of the a.c. supply frequency.
Very often when rectifying an alternating voltage we wish to produce a "steady" direct
voltage free from any voltage variations or ripple. Filter circuits are used to smoothen the
output. Various filter circuits are available such as shunt capacitor, series inductor, choke
input LC filter and π-filter etc. Here we will use a simple shunt capacitor filter circuit
(Fig. 2). Since a capacitor is open to d.c. and offers low impedance path to a.c. current,
putting a capacitor across the output will make the d.c. component to pass through the
load resulting in small ripple voltage.

The working of the capacitor can be understood in the following manner. When the
rectifier output voltage is increasing, the capacitor charges to the peak voltage Vm. Just
past the positive peak the rectifier output voltage tries to fall. As the source voltage
decreases below Vm , the capacitor will try to send the current back to diode making it
reverse biased. Thus the diode separates/disconnects the source from the load and hence
the capacitor will discharge through the load until the source voltage becomes more than
the capacitor voltage. The diode again starts conducting and the capacitor is again
charged to the peak value Vm and the process continues. Although in the output
waveform the discharging of capacitor is shown as a straight line for simplicity, the decay
is actually the normal exponential decay of any capacitor discharging through a load
resistor. The extent to which the capacitor voltage drops depends on the capacitance and
the amount of current drawn by the load; these two factors effectively form the RC time
constant for voltage decay. A proper combination of large capacitance and small load
resistance can give out a steady output.

Procedure:
i) Configure the half-wave rectifier circuit as shown in the circuit diagram. Note
down all the values of the components being used.
ii) Connect the primary side of the transformer to the a.c. Mains and secondary to
the input of the circuit.
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iii) Measure the input a.c. voltage (Vac) and current (Iac) and the output a.c.
(Vac), d.c. (Vdc) voltages using multimeter for at least 3 values of load
resistor (Be careful to choose proper settings of multimeter for ac and dc
measurement).
iv) Multiply the Vac at the input by √2 to get the peak value and calculate Vdc
using the formula Vdc = Vmax/ π. Compare this value with the measured Vdc
at the output.
v) Feed the input and output (in DC coupling mode) to the two channels of
oscilloscope. We will use oscilloscope here only to trace the output waveform.
Save the data for each measurement using SAVE/LOAD or STORAGE button
of the oscilloscope.
vi) Calculate the ripple factor and efficiency.
vii) Connect an electrolytic capacitor (with –ve terminal connected to ground)
across the output for each load resistor and measure the output a.c. and d.c.
voltages once again and calculate the ripple factor. Trace the input and output
waveforms in oscilloscope and notice the change.
viii) Repeat the above measurement foe all values of capacitors and study the
output.

Input Waveform Output Waveform

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WITHOUT FILTER

USING DMM Vac(v) Vdc(v) r= Vac/ Vdc

2.37V 1.39 V 1.23

WITHOUT FILTER:- Vdc=0.318Vm, Vrms=0.5Vm, Vac=√ ( Vrms2- Vdc 2)

V m(v) V ac(v) V dc(v) r= V ac/ Vdc

USING CRO 6V 3V 1.909 V 1.57

CALCULATIONS:

 V m(v)= 6V
 Vrms=0.5Vm = 0.5(6) = 3V
 Vdc=0.318Vm = 0.318(6) = 1.909V
 Vac=√ ( Vrms2- Vdc 2) = √ (32 −1.9092)= 3V
 r= V ac/ Vdc = 3/1.909 = 1.57

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OSCILLOSCOPE :

Input waveform Output waveform

Input Waveform Output Waveform

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WITH FILTER

USING DMM Vac(v) Vdc(v) r= Vac/ Vdc

3.95 V 2.55 V 1.6

WITH FILTER

V1(V) V2(V) Vdc= Vac= r=

USING CRO ( V1+V2)/2 ( V1- V2)/2√3 V ac/ Vdc
6V 200 mV 3.1 V 5.0229 V 1.62

CALCULATIONS:

 V1 = 6V , V2 = 200mV
 Vdc =V1+V2/2 = (6 + 0.2)/2 =3.1
 Vac= ( V1- V2)/2√3 = (6-0.2)/2 √ 3 = 5.0229V
 r= V ac/ Vdc = 5.0229/3.1 = 1.62

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OSCILLOSCOPE :

Input waveform
Output waveform

Conclusion:

In this lab, we learned about the crucial role of diodes in rectifying alternating current
(AC) signals into direct current (DC) signals through half-wave rectification. Through
hands-on experimentation and analysis, we explored the practical applications of diodes
in converting AC voltage to pulsating DC voltage. By observing the output waveform
and calculating key parameters such as peak voltage and average voltage, we gained
insights into the behavior and characteristics of diodes in half-wave rectification circuits.

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Electronic Devices and Circuits Lab