Kingtronics Blog

Design of a Bridge Rectifier

Bridge rectifiers change AC voltage into DC voltage.
They are used in a wide variety of electronics and most often found in AC powered devices,
modern home telephones, simple plug-in power supplies and even in high horsepower motor controllers.
Many modern devices have benefited from these solid-state silicon semiconductor devices,
as they have replaced the failure-prone metal oxide rectifiers used many years ago.

Function

Bridge rectifiers can be either in a 'half wave' or a 'full wave' configuration.
Electrolytic filter capacitors are commonly added to smooth the rectification pulsations.
The device can also be used for assuring that DC (battery) power happens in a fixed way
even if the battery is connected improperly. In modern telephones,
they assure proper connectivity and electrical isolation to the incoming phone lines.
Even if the phone wires are miswired, the phone will still work properly.

Kingtronics are a producer of bridge rectifier with many years. We have got UL Certificate for our bridge rectifier.

Here are our Bridge rectifier items: DB107, MB10S, KBL4005，KBU610, KBPC2510，KBPC2510W, KBPC35005-KBPC3510, KBPC3510W........etc..

Any inquiry, pls send email to anna@kingtronics.cn

Kingtronics offer high quality and competitive transistor, welcome to send us inquiry!

Is it possible to obtain more pulses than twice the number of phases in a rectifier circuit? The answer to this question is yes: especially in polyphase circuits. Through the creative use of transformers, sets of full-wave rectifiers may be paralleled in such a way that more than six pulses of DC are produced for three phases of AC. A 30o phase shift is introduced from primary to secondary of a three-phase transformer when the winding configurations are not of the same type. In other words, a transformer connected either Y-Δ or Δ-Y will exhibit this 30o phase shift, while a transformer connected Y-Y or Δ-Δ will not. This phenomenon may be exploited by having one transformer connected Y-Y feed a bridge rectifier, and have another transformer connected Y-Δ feed a second bridge rectifier, then parallel the DC outputs of both rectifiers. Since the ripple voltage waveforms of the two rectifiers' outputs are phase-shifted 30o from one another, their superposition results in less ripple than either rectifier output considered separately: 12 pulses per 360o instead of just six

Bridge Rectifier Series:
DB101-DB107
DB101S-DB107S
MB1S-MB10S
KBL4005-KBL410
KBU6005-KBU610
KBPC25005-KBPC2510
KBPC25005W-KBPC2510W
KBPC35005-KBPC3510
KBPC35005W-KBPC3510W

A bridge rectifier makes use of four diodes in a bridge arrangement to achieve full-wave rectification.

This is a widely used configuration, both with individual diodes wired as shown and with single component bridges where the diode bridge is wired internally.

The Schottky diode or Schottky Barrier diode is an electronics component that is widely used for radio frequency (RF) applications as a mixer or detector diode.

The Schottky diode is also used in power applications as a rectifier, again because of its low forward voltage drop leading to lower levels of power loss compared to ordinary PN junction diodes.

Although normally called the Schottky diode these days, named after Schottky, it is also sometimes referred to as the surface barrier diode, hot carrier diode or even hot electron diode.

1A Schottky Barrier Rectifier 1N5817-1N5819& 3.0A Schottky Barrier Rectifier 1N5820-1N5822 is Kt Mark which Kt Kingtronics produce and sell very well. In exhibition at FIEE in Brazil Kingtronics has success in showing Schottky Diode.

In electronics, a varicap diode, varactor diode, variable capacitance diode, variable reactance diode or tuning diode is a type of diode which has a variable capacitance that is a function of the voltage impressed on its terminals.

All diodes exhibit this phenomenon to some degree, but specially made varactor diodes exploit the effect to boost the capacitance and variability range achieved - most diode fabrication attempts to achieve the opposite.

In the figure we can see an example of a crossection of a varactor with the depletion layer formed of a p-n-junction. But the depletion layer can also be made of a MOS-diode or a Schottky diode. This is very important in CMOS and MMIC technology.

This circuit's operation is easily understood one half-cycle at a time. Consider the first half-cycle, when the source voltage polarity is positive (+) on top and negative (-) on bottom. At this time, only the top diode is conducting; the bottom diode is blocking current, and the load “sees” the first half of the sine wave, positive on top and negative on bottom. Only the top half of the transformer's secondary winding carries current during this half-cycle as in Figure below.

Diodes based on organic chemicals have been produced using low temperature processes. Hole rich and electron rich conductive polymers may be ink jet printed in layers. Most of the research and development is of the organic LED (OLED). However, development of inexpensive printable organic RFID (radio frequency identification) tags is on going. In this effort, a pentacene organic rectifier has been operated at 50 MHz. Rectification to 800 MHz is a development goal. An inexpensive metal insulator metal (MIM) diode acting like a back-to-back zener diode clipper has been delveloped. Also, a tunnel diode like device has been fabricated.

A diode bridge is an arrangement of four (or more) diodes in a bridge configuration that provides the same polarity of output for either polarity of input. When used in its most common application, for conversion of an alternating current (AC) input into direct current a (DC) output, it is known as a bridge rectifier. A bridge rectifier provides full-wave rectification from a two-wire AC input, resulting in lower cost and weight as compared to a rectifier with a 3-wire input from a transformer with a center-tapped secondary winding.

The essential feature of a diode bridge is that the polarity of the output is the same regardless of the polarity at the input. The diode bridge circuit is also known as the Graetz circuit after its inventor, physicist Leo Graetz.

In actuality, free electrons in a conductor nearly always flow from the negative to the positive pole. In the vast majority of applications, however, the actual direction of current flow is irrelevant. Therefore, in the discussion below the conventional model is retained.

Prior to the availability of integrated circuits, a bridge rectifier was constructed from "discrete components", i.e., separate diodes. Since about 1950, a single four-terminal component containing the four diodes connected in a bridge configuration became a standard commercial component and is now available with various voltage and current ratings.

For many applications, especially with single phase AC where the full-wave bridge serves to convert an AC input into a DC output, the addition of a capacitor may be desired because the bridge alone supplies an output of fixed polarity but continuously varying or "pulsating" magnitude, an attribute commonly referred to as "ripple".

Schottky Rectifiers have been used in the power supply industry for approximately 15 years. During this time, significant fiction as well as fact has been associated with this type of rectifier. The primary assets of Schottky devices are switching speeds approaching zero-time and very low forward voltage drop (VF). This combination makes Schottky barrier rectifiers ideal for the output stages of switching power supplies. On the negative side, Schottky devices are also known for limited high-temperature operation, high eakage and limited voltage range BVR. Though these limitations exist, they are quantifiable and controllable, allowing wide application of these devices in switch mode power supplies.