Lecture 21: Diodes Applications: Power Supply, Regulators and Clippers

There are many applications of diodes. The most important ones are discussed below:

DC Power Supply:

As discussed in the previous lecture that the diodes are used in a configuration of a bridge rectifier
to convert the AC to DC. However, the bridge rectifier only shifts the negative part of the AC
towards the positive side. The voltage is still varying with time as seen in Fig. 1. The full-wave
bridge rectifier gives a greater mean DC value (0.637 Vmax) while the output waveform is twice
that of the frequency of the input supply frequency.

Fig. 1: Full-wave rectification circuit

The negative supply can also be generated with the help of a center tapped transformer as shown
in Fig. 2. Such transformer has three output terminals.

Fig. 2: Full-wave rectification circuit with center-tapped transformer

The average DC output of the rectifier is improved by reducing the AC variation of the rectified
output with the help of smoothing capacitors to filter the output waveform. Smoothing or
reservoir capacitors connected in parallel with the load (as shown Fig. 3) across the output of the
full wave bridge rectifier circuit increases the average DC output level even higher as the
capacitor acts like a storage device as shown below. The variation in the voltage output is called
rippled output. The smoothing capacitor converts the full-wave rippled output of the rectifier into
a more smooth DC output voltage. There are two important parameters to consider when
choosing a suitable smoothing capacitor and these are its Working Voltage, which must be higher
than the no-load output value of the rectifier and its Capacitance Value, which determines the
amount of ripple that will appear superimposed on top of the DC voltage. Too low a capacitance
value has little effect on the output waveform. But if the smoothing capacitor is sufficiently large
enough (parallel capacitors can be used) and the load current is not too large, the output voltage
will be almost as smooth as pure DC. As a general rule of thumb, we are looking to have a ripple
voltage of less than 100mV peak to peak. The maximum ripple voltage present for a Full Wave
Rectifier circuit is not only determined by the value of the smoothing capacitor but by the
frequency and load current, and is calculated as:
𝐼𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑
𝑉𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑒 = [𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑠] (1)
𝑓×𝐶
where f is the frequency of the AC power in Hertz, C is the capacitance in Farads and 𝐼𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 is the
load current in Amperes. The ripple-factor r is an indication of the effectiveness of the filter and
is defined as:
𝑉𝑟(𝑝𝑝)
𝑟= (2)
𝑉𝐷𝐶
Where 𝑉𝑟(𝑝𝑝) is the peak to peak voltage of a ripple and 𝑉𝐷𝐶 is the mean DC value of the output.

Fig. 3: Full-wave rectification circuit with a smoothing capacitor

Using this technique, the ripple in the rectified output can be reduced but cannot be completely
eliminated. In case of requirement of less rippled output, voltage regulators are used. Voltage
regulators accepts a range of input voltage but provides a fixed output voltage, called fixed
voltage regulators. Voltage regulators come in IC packages such as LM78xx (where xx stands for
the output voltage rating). For instance, LM7805 is 5V regulator and 7812 is 12V regulator.
Similarly, negative voltage regulators are available as well such as LM7905 and 7912. These are
fixed voltage regulators however there are variable voltage regulators as well such as LM317.
Fig. 4 represents few packages of the voltage regulators. These packages have their own pin
configuration and operating characteristics/specifications mentioned in their datasheet. The
major factor to decide the package style is the power rating. Voltage regulators produce a lot of
heat under loading condition. Therefore, a current ratings must be verified before using a
regulator. Secondly, a proper heat sink must be used to dissipate the heat to the environment.
Different heat sinks are available in the market for each package style with different surface areas
to remove heat from the IC. When the amount of current is higher, the heat sinks are often not
enough to remove the heat from the IC. Fans are used for such cases to accelerate the heat removal
process.

Fig. 4: Voltage regulator integrated circuits (IC)

A voltage regulator consists of three pins: an input, an output and a reference/ground. A typical
regulator is shown in the circuit as a square box as represented in Fig. 5.

Fig. 4: Voltage regulator circuit

Although, these regulators are supposed to give a fixed voltage output for all the values (in range)
of the input supply. However, this output value is not the same. This property of a particular
regulator is measured by line regulation. It is defined as, the percentage change in the output
with the change in the input of a regulator and is given by:

Δ𝑉𝑂𝑈𝑇
𝐿𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑅𝑒𝑔𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = × 100% (3)
Δ𝑉𝐼𝑁

Furthermore, it’s not only the input voltage that affects the regulated output. The output of the
regulator is also affected immensely with the change in current drawn from the regulator. This
is defined by load regulation which is the percent change in the regulated output based on the
load current, generally from no load to maximum load. It is given by:

𝑉𝐹𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 − 𝑉𝑁𝑜 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑

𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑 𝑅𝑒𝑔𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = × 100% (4)
𝑉𝐹𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝐿𝑜𝑎𝑑

Clipping/Limiter Circuit:

Rectifier is one of the example of a clipping circuit, also called a limiter circuit. In this particular
case, the negative/positive voltage of the input supply is clipped and a single sided voltage
output is generated. This typical application can be easily understood with the help of examples.
Consider the circuit given below, during the positive half of the input, the diode is in forward
biased and the voltage output seen should be 0.7V. However, in the negative half cycle, the diode
will be in the reverse biased configuration and all the voltage at the input supply would appear
as it is on the output. This is called positive diode clipping.

Similarly, consider each example clearly and find a justification for the output. The circuit
shown below is called bi-directional clipping circuit.
Positive Bias Diode Clipping is shown below:

Negative Bias Diode Clipping is shown below:

Bidirectional Diode Clipping of different bias level is shown below: