Experiment 7

VOLTAGE DOUBLERS

Introduction:

A voltage multiplier produces a DC voltage equal to a multiple of the peak

input voltage. Voltage multipliers are useful with high voltage / low current loads.
With a voltage doubler, you get twice as much DC output voltage as you do from a
standard peak rectifier. This is useful when you are trying to produce high voltages
(several hundred volts or more) because higher secondary voltages result in bulkier
transformers. At some point, a designer may prefer to use voltage doublers instead of
bigger transformers. With a voltage tripler, the DC voltage is approximately three
times the peak input voltage. As the multiple increases, the peak-to-peak ripple gets
worse.
In this experiment, you will build half-wave and full-wave voltage doublers.
You will measure the DC output voltage and peak-to-peak ripple of these circuits to
verify the operation in the lecture.

Objectives:

At the end of experiment, you should be able to:

1. Measure and calculate the ripple frequency, peak-to-peak ripple and DC

output voltage of the half-wave and full-wave doubler.
2. Measure the DC load voltage, ripple frequency and peak-to-peak ripple
voltage of the half-wave doubler when the diode or capacitor is open.

Materials / Equipment:

1 Transformer, 12.6 V AC center-tapped with fuse line cord

2 Silicon Diodes: (1N4001 or equivalent)
1, ½ W Resistors: (1K)
2 capacitors: (470 µF 25 V-rating or better)
1 VOM: (Analog or Digital Multimeter)
1 Oscilloscope
1 Breadboard
1 set Connecting wires
1 set Alligator Clips

1
Diagram:

Fuse 470 D2

C1

AC
D1 C2 470 1K
Plug
CT

Fig. 7-1: Half-wave Doubler

Fuse

470
AC
Plug 1K
CT
470

Fig. 7-2: Full-wave Doubler

Procedure:

A. Half- wave doubler

1. Measure the resistance of the primary and secondary windings of the

transformer. Record the resistances in Table 7-1.

2. In fig. 7-1, assume the rms secondary voltage of 12.6 V. Calculate and record
the quantities listed in Table 7-2. Use the equation for peak-to-peak ripple.

3. Connect the circuit of fig. 7-1.

4. Measure and record all the quantities listed in Table 7-2.

B. Full-wave doubler

2
5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 for the full-wave doubler of fig. 7-2. Use Table 7-3 to
record your data. When calculating the peak-to-peak ripple, noticed that the
load resistors is in parallel with two capacitors in series.

C. Troubleshooting

6. Assume capacitor C1 is open in fig. 7-1.

7. Estimate the DC load voltage, ripple frequency and peak-to-peak ripple.

Record your rough estimates in Table 7-4.

8. Connect the circuit of fig. 7-1 with foregoing trouble. Measure and record the
quantities of Table 7-4.

9. Assume diode D2 is open in Fig. 7-1. Repeat steps 7 and 8.

Data and Findings

Table 7-1. Transformer Resistances

Rpri
Rsec

Table 7-2. Half-wave doubler

Quantities Calculated Measured

RMS secondary voltage 12.6 V
Peak output voltage
DC output voltage
DC load current
Ripple frequency
Peak-to-peak ripple
voltage

3
Table 7-3. Full-wave doubler

Quantities Calculated Measured

RMS secondary voltage 12.6 V
Peak output voltage
DC output voltage
DC load current
Ripple frequency
Peak-to-peak ripple
voltage

Table 7-4. Troubleshooting

Calculated Measured
VDC fout Vrip VDC fout Vrip
Open C1
Open D2
Open C2

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 POST-TEST

I. Encircle the letter of the corresponding correct answer among the choices.

1. In experiment #7 the DC output voltage from the half-wave doubler was

approximately equal to _____.
a. peak primary voltage
b. rms primary voltage
c. twice the peak secondary voltage
d. twice the peak voltage driving the half-wave doubler

2. The ripple frequency of half-wave doubler was _____.

a. 60 Hz b. 120 Hz c. 240 Hz d. 480 Hz

3. The full-wave doubler has a ripple frequency of _____.

a. 60 Hz b. 120 Hz c. 240 Hz d. 480 Hz

4. The peak-to-peak ripple of a full-wave doubler compared with a half-wave

doubler is ______.
a. half b. the same c. twice as much d. none of the given

5. Assume the primary resistance of 30 Ω and the secondary resistance of 1 Ω ib

fig. 7-2. The primary voltage is 115 V and the secondary voltage is 12.6 V. The
Thevenin resistance facing either filter capacitor is approximately _____.
a. 0.59 Ω b. 0.86 Ω c. 1.09 Ω d. 1.36 Ω

II. Answer the following question.

How the full-wave doubler works? Explain.