What is a DC power supply?
A device that converts alternating current (AC) to regulated direct current (DC) for use in electrical circuits
What is a rectifier?
Is an electrical Circuit that changes AC into DC
Three basic Types
Half-wave, Full-Wave, and Full-wave bridge rectifier
What is Half Wave Rectifier?
What does it do?
Is a circuit containing an AC source, a load resistor and a diode
Permits only the positve half cycles of the AC Sine wace to pass, creating half wave pulsating DC
Full-Wave Rectifiers
What is it used for?
Is an electrical circuit containing two diodes and a center-tapped transformer.
Full wave is more efficient and has smoother ouput than a half wave
Used to produce full wave pulsating DC.
Full-wave Bridge
Considered less efficient than 2-diode full-wave rectifiers because during each half cycle the voltage is dropped across 2 diodes as opposed to only 1
What is a voltage limiter?
An electronic circuit that consists of diodes used to control voltage where large changes are expected.
What is Voltage regulator?
electronic circuit that maintains a relatively constant value of output voltage over a wide range of operating situations
What is Ripple voltage
amount of varying voltage present in a DC power supply.
What is Pulsating DC?
electricity that varies in amplitude but does not change polarity
What is a filter?
part of a DC power supply that smooths the pulsating DC output
What is Voltage divider?
circuit that provides several different voltages for different loads.
What is a Voltage multiplier ?
electronic circuit designed to supply higher voltages than the AC source without using a transformer.
