We have all had difficulty testing diodes in-circuit. Most DMM’s have a diode Vf function that measures forward drop, but what is the normal voltage drop? Analog VOM’s attempt to measure resistance of ...

Typically, a power supply is comprised of a power transformer, which is then followed by a conventional bridge rectifier. The bridge rectifier is constructed using four diodes that are interconnected ...

Everyone loves a full-wave bridge rectifier, but there’s no denying that they aren’t 100% efficient due to the diode voltage drop. Which isn’t to say that with some effort we cannot create an ideal ...

A major cause of losses in a conventional power supply using a 50/60-Hz transformer is the bridge rectifier. This article shows how to build a “greener” rectifier, substantially reducing losses by ...

Alpha and Omega Semiconductor has announced a family of active diodes which can reduce the 1.2V forward drop of 600V bridge rectifiers. “Both products are self-powered from the AC line and do not ...

Linear Technology Corporation announces the availability of a low loss 3-phase ideal diode bridge rectifier reference design, demonstrated on evaluation board DC2465. Conventional 3-phase rectifiers ...

Fig. 1. Typical diode full-wave bridge. Full-wave diode bridges are found in many electronic systems (Fig. 1). At typical AC power line voltages, the drop across the diodes has little impact on the ...