an electrical device which converts an alternating current into a direct one by allowing a current to flow through it in one direction only.
Half wave rectifier only converts half of the AC wave into DC signal whereas Full wave rectifier converts complete AC signal into DC.
Positive Half Cycle:
During the positive half cycle, the diode terminal anode will become positive and the cathode will become negative known as forward bias. And it will allow the positive cycle to flow through.
Positive Half Cycle:
During the positive half cycle, the diode terminal anode will become positive and the cathode will become negative known as forward bias. And it will allow the positive cycle to flow through.
Negative Half Cycle:
During the negative half cycle, the anode will become negative and the cathode will become positive, which is known as reverse bias. So the diode will block the negative cycle.
So when an AC source is connected to the half-wave rectifier, only half cycle will flow through it as shown in the figure below.
The output of this rectifier is taken across the load resistor RL. if we look at the input-to-output graph, it shows a pulsating positive half cycle of the input.
The output of the half wave rectifier has too many ripples & it is not very practical to use this output as DC source. To smooth this pulsating output, a capacitor is introduced across the resistor. The capacitor will charge during the positive cycle and discharge during the negative cycle to give out a smooth output signal.
