Rectification|application of semiconductor diode|Part 2| Full wave Rectification|Definition| Importance|Working principle|Class 12 Physics|

Full Wave Rectification

                                          Rectification is  a type of rectification in which both positive and negative cycles of an alternating voltage or current are rectified. i.e. the full alternating signal is made to move in one direction by discarding the negative parts of the total cycles.

Importance of Full wave rectification:

                                        Full wave is rectified to deliver a continuous power to the load resistor or to the electric appliance we are interested to operate. Almost all of the appliances we use in our daily lives operate on DC current whose direction of flow remains same throughout the circuit. This flow in one direction delivers a continuous power to the appliances.

Types of Full wave rectification

                                                        There are two ways to rectify a full wave, which are, Center Tapped Full wave rectification, and Full wave bridge rectifier.

Working principle:

In this article we will discuss the Center tapped full wave rectification in detail. In center tapped full wave rectification we have two diodes connected with an alternating voltage source. In between these two diodes a load resister is connected in parallel. These two diodes can be variably forward and reversed biased one after the other, which restricts the current to flow in a single direction. 

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The direction of current in the secondary circuit of the above diagram changes periodically as it is coupled with an alternating voltage source of changing polarity. This change in polarity of the source changes the biasing of the two diodes in the circuit. When diode 1 becomes forward biased, diode 2 becomes reverse biased and vice versa. It must be noted that PN Junction diode allows current due to majority charge carriers in forward biasing and it don’t allow current to pass through when it is reverse biased. Surprisingly, despite of the provision of alternating current the direction of the current flowing in the load resistor is always same even for the negative cycle of the alternating signal.

Can you now answer why the current flows only in one direction through the resistor even it is connected to an alternating source?

Comment your answer.