Basic Power Supply Rectification Tutorial

by Lewis Loflin Many devices, in particular electronics, must use DC or direct current. A diode is a solid-state device that conducts in one direction only. When the anode (A) is positive and the cathode (K) is negative (though the load) current (I'm assuming electron flow from negative to positive) will flow through the load, through the diode and back to the power supply. Thus current will flow only of the positive half-cycle (0 to 180 degrees) and the diode will shut-off during the negative half-cycle from 180 degrees to 360 degrees. The period of a sine wave from 0 degrees to 360 degrees equals 1/F. In the case of 60 Hertz it's 1/60 = 16.7 mSec.

What is power? Voltage (in volts) is the "push" and the current (in Amperes) is what is being pushed. (Electric charges) Power is voltage times current. Power is measured in watts. So one amp at one volt equals one watt. (I'm not going into all of Ohm's Law here. See your text.) We must have voltage and current together to get power, so an open switch, broken wire, or a shut-off diode delivers no power. In the case above, we get very poor power transfer with the diode off during the negative half-cycle and the positive half-cycle changing constantly between zero volts and peak. Note that Vmax is peak.

Figure 2 Let's say the AC in is 12.6 volts RMS. To get peak we multiply 12.6 by 1.414, which equals about 17.8 volts. But the average (or measured) voltage DC is peak times .3185 equals about 5.67 volts. This is what is called pulsating DC. Pure DC, such as from a 12 volt auto battery, has none of the "ripple" and will be a real 12 volts. Put a DC voltmeter across the load above in figure 1, one will read about 5.66 volts. Switch the meter to AC, one will still read a voltage of some value. This is normal as one is reading the "ripple" riding the unfiltered raw D.C. Connect the same AC voltmeter across a clean DC source such as a car battery, one will read zero volts AC. In figure 2 we inserted a capacitor across the load. The capacitor charges during the positive half-cycle, then discharges through the load during the negative half-cycle when we have no output. The amount of ripple is dependant on the resistance of the load and the size of the capacitor. A larger capacitor produces less ripple or a higher resistance load (drawing less current thus less time for the capacitor to discharge) will reduce the level of ripple because the capacitor has less time to discharge. With no load at all, just the capacitor and the rectifier, the capacitor will charge to peak. A word of caution. If constructing these circuits observe capacitor polarity and diode polarity. The voltage ratings of the capacitors should exceed the expected peak voltage by 50%. Also note the current ratings of the transformers and diodes.

Figure 3
Full-wave rectification

Full-wave rectification converts both polarities of the input waveform to DC (direct current), and is more efficient. However, in a circuit with a non-center tapped transformer, four diodes are required instead of the one needed for half-wave rectification. This is due to each output polarity requiring two rectifiers each. Four rectifiers arranged this way are called a diode bridge or bridge rectifier. Note that in this example the arrows show conventional current flow, not electron flow I use with my students. This causes endless confusion for students as the military, etc. use electron flow in their training material while semiconductor classes use conventional current. Just be aware of this as one follows this material. Electron flow is from negative to positive, conventional (or charge) flow is from positive to negative. In figure 3 D1 and D2 conduct during the positive half-cycle while D3 and D4 conduct during the negative half-cycle. Power delivered here is twice that of halfwave rectification because we are using both half-cycles. Using 12 volts AC again, we have 12.6 X 1.414 or 17 volts peak. (17.8 volts) But now to get the average we multiply by peak (17.8 volts) by 0.637 which equals 10.83 volts, double that of halfwave. In addition we can use a smaller filter capacitor to clean out the ripple than we used with half-wave rectification. We have also doubled the frequency from 60 Hertz to

120 Hertz. It should be noted that when this circuit is constructed the voltage on the meter will be about one volt low. This is due to a 0.6 volt drop across the diodes, meter calibration due to frequency change (from 60 Hz to 120 Hz), and calculation errors. About me Bristol VA/TN E-Mail Hobby Electronics Arduino Microcontroller

Figure 4 typical bridge rectifiers.

Figure 5

Figure 5 above illustrates another method to obtain full-wave rectification. In this case we use a center-tapped transformer and two diodes. In using the center-tap (C) as a common, the voltage A and B is 180 degrees out of phase. When A is positive, D1 will be forward biased and conduct, while B will be negative thus reverse-biasing D2, while is non-conductive. On the negative half cycle in relation to A when D1 doesn't conduct, D2 will conduct. It should be noted the output voltage will be cut by half. If we use a 25.2 volt, three amp transformer, the output voltage will be 12.6 volts. There is some controversy on output current. We are dealing RMS amps and have to factor in transformer impedance. (Z) During each half-cycle in this configuration current flow in one-half the total windings. Based on resistance of the wire, Z, etc. the current can be 1.2 to 1.8 times the rated current. I'd urge caution on these claims and wouldn't go above 1.4. All of the previous rules for peak, output voltage, etc. still hold true.

Figure 1

Tricks and Tips for the LM78XX Series Voltage Regulators

by Lewis Loflin In this section we will explore fixed, regulated power supplies. We will make use of the 78XX and 79XX series of voltage regulators. They are made by several manufacturers, most are readily available, and are inexpensive. In Basic Power Supply Rectification Tutorial we already discussed the process from AC in to filtering. Later we will examine adjustable, regulated power supplies.

Figure 2 The LM78XX series of three terminal positive regulators are available in the TO-220 package. Each type employs internal current limiting, thermal shut down and safe operating area protection, making it essentially indestructible. If adequate heat sinking is provided, they can deliver over 1A output current. These devices can be used with external components to obtain adjustable voltages and currents. Available output voltages: 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, and 24V. Figure 2 shows the electrical connection for the LM78XX series.

Figure 3 The LM79XX series of 3-terminal regulators is available with fixed output voltages of -5V, -12V, and -15V. These devices need only a compensation capacitor (1 uF solid tantalum or 25F aluminum electrolytic) at the output. The LM79XX series is packaged in the TO-220 power package and is capable of supplying 1.5A of output current with proper heat sinking. Like the LM78XX series they hey employ internal current limiting safe area protection and thermal shutdown for protection against virtually all overload conditions. Figure 3 shows the electrical connections on the LM79XX series and how they differ from the LM78XX series.

Figure 4 Figure 4 shows a basic 5 volt general purpose power supply. Any of the other positive regulators will work the same way as long as one observes proper input voltage levels and component ratings.

Figure 5 In figure 5 we have added a NPN pass transistor such as a 2N3055 to boost output current to several amps. Diode D1 was added to compensate for the voltage drop across the base-emitter junction of Q1.

Figure 6 In figure 6 we have added a 5.6 volt zener diode for D1. By using zeners we can produce any number of odd voltage requirements. Q1 works the same as in figure 5 or could be left out and a 5 volt zener used if current requirement is under 1 amp.

Figure 7 Figure 7 illustrates a regulated bi-polar power supply for use with OP-AMP circuits.

Building a Parallel Voltage Summer

Building fomula: Parallel voltage summer = V-to-I converters + current summer + I-to-V converter.

Fig. 1. Parallel voltage summer = V-to-I converters + current summer + I-to-V converter.

Contents
[hide]

1 A problem: the common ground 2 Deriving the simplest current summer from KCL 3 Building a parallel voltage summer 4 Exploring the circuit 5 Do we really need an I-to-V converter? 6 Applications

o o o

6.1 Op-amp inverting voltage summer 6.2 Digital-to-analog converter 6.3 Audio mixer

7 Parallel versus series summer 8 Further reading

[edit]A

problem: the common ground

Fig. 2. Where to ground the circuit?

Kirchhoff's Voltage Law has already given us an idea how to create the simplest series voltage summer. Unfortunately, it had a lot of disadvantages; maybe, the most crucial of them was the problem of the common ground. Do you remember? First, we grounded the common point between the input source VIN1 and the load; as a result, the sources VIN2 and VIN3became flying. Then, we tried to ground the common point between the input sources VIN1 and VIN2; now, the source VIN3 and the load became flying. Finally, we were forced to use only two grounded sources and a differential load. Only, Kirchhoff has formulated another law - Kirchhoff's Current Law (KCL). Maybe, it can help us to create a perfect voltage summer having no problems with the common ground? Let's try this speculation!

[edit]Deriving

the simplest current summer from KCL

Fig. 3. In order to sum currents, we have just to connect in parallel the input current sources to the load.

First, we can apply directly KCL to create a current summer. For this purpose, we have just to connect in parallel the input current sources Ii (let's for concreteness assume again that we have three sources) to thecurrent load LI (Fig. 3). Let's first assume that it is a perfect current load having zero resistance (e.g., just a piece of wire). The output current IOUT flowing through the load is the sum of the input currents: IOUT = IIN1 + IIN2+ IIN3. We can ask ourselves again, "Only, what is actually the summer here?", "Where is it?" The input current sources and the load are external components; so, the rest (the bare node or the junction point) serves here as a summer! The simplest current summer is just a node. Wonderful! We have another "ideal" device - the current summer. It is apparent device because there is not actually a device:)!

[edit]Building

a parallel voltage summer

Fig. 4. We can build a parallel voltage summer, if we connect V-toI converters before the inputs and I-to-V converter after the output of a current summer.

Only, we want to sum input voltages; so, we have to convert them into currents. For this purpose, we connectvoltage-to-current converters between the input voltage sources and the inputs of the current summer (Fig. 4). Also, we need a voltage output; so, we have to connect the opposite current-to-voltage converter at the current summer output. In this way, we have assembled a composed voltage summing circuit: Parallel voltage summer = V-to-I converters + current summer + I-to-V converter Let's compare the two viewpoints: From the classical viewpoint, the parallel voltage summer consists of a few resistors; from our viewpoint, it contains voltage-to-current converters, a current summer and a current-to-voltage converter. The use of applying such a system approach is that we see the function of the resistors in the circuit; we see the forest for the tree!

[edit]Exploring

the circuit

Fig. 5. Visualizing the circuit operation by voltage bars and current loops.

Let's now see how the circuit operates. Attractive voltage bars will help us to visualize the invisible voltages and voltage drops (Fig. 5); current loops will show us where the currents flow (remember: every current returns where it has begun flowing). The input voltage sources VIN produce voltages, the resistors RIN convert them into currents, the junction point sums the currents and finally, the resistor R converts back the current sum into an output voltage VOUT. Only, the output voltage introduces an error because it subtracts from the input voltages. Now, the effective voltages VR1, VR2 and VR3 create the currents instead the whole input voltages VIN1, VIN2 and VIN3: IIN1 = (VIN1 - VOUT)/R1 = VR1/R1 IIN2 = (VIN2 - VOUT)/R2 = VR2/R2 IIN3 = (VIN3 - VOUT)/R3 = VR3/R3 How do we remove the error?

[edit]Do

we really need an I-to-V converter?

Fig. 6. The circuit continues working fine even, if we remove the I-to-V converter.

Maybe, you have already noted the contradictory role of the resistor R. In order not to disturb the input sources (see above), we want the resistance R to be as small as possible (preferably R = 0). As a result, the input voltage-to-current converters become each other independent; only, the output voltage decreases:( We will use this technique later when we build an active parallel voltage summer. But why do not we increase the resistance R up to infinity (i.e., just to remove the resistor R)? In this case, the input voltage-to-current converters become each other absolutely dependent but we obtain a maximal output voltage. We can use this solution when the load has an infinite internal resistance (e.g., when we have buffered the passive summer by a non-inverting amplifier). Only, there is a sound reason to connect the "unnecessary" resistor R - it can add the input coefficients up to 1 (see more explanations). We will use this technique below to build a simple digital-to-analog converter.

[edit]Applications The parallel voltage summer exists in many analog circuits considered in electronics books; only, authors do not discern and do not pay attention to it. As a result, it is presented rather implicitly than manifestly. In

this section, we will do our best to show its presence in various electronic circuits. This famous circuit deserves our attention. [edit]Op-amp

inverting voltage summer

Fig. 7. We can build an op-amp inverting summer by connecting a passive parallel voltage summer and an op-amp.

Maybe, the most important application of the passive summer is building an op-amp active summer. Only, what is the idea behind such an op-amp inverting summing circuit (Fig. 7)? From the classical viewpoint, an op-amp inverting summer consists of input resistors Ri, a negative feedback resistor R and an op-amp. Only, thinking of the active circuit in this way we can't discern the basic idea behind it; we do not see the forest for the tree. From our fresh viewpoint, an op-amp inverting summer consists of a passive parallel voltage summer and an op-amp: Op-amp inverting summer = parallel voltage summer + op-amp More precisely speaking, an n-input op-amp inverting summer needs an (n+1)-input passive parallel voltage summer. For example, in order to build a 3-input op-amp inverting summer (our case) we have to add an additional fourth input IN4. A properly supplied op-amp serves as an additional input voltage source that adjusts its output voltage VOUT (the "input" voltage VIN4) so that to zero the passive summer's output voltage VA (the virtual ground). As a result, the op-amp's output voltage represents the sum of the input voltages VIN. Let's repeat again: We (i.e., the op-amp) introduce(s) an additional "compensating" input and make its voltage equal to the sum of the rest "true" input voltages. Then, we abandon the "genuine" summer's output voltage V A (now, it serves only as an indication of an equilibrium) and begin using the compensating voltage V IN4 as an output.

[edit]Digital-to-analog

converter

Fig. 8. A parallel voltage summer with binary weighted input coefficients can serve as a DAC.

What is a digital-to-analog converter (DAC)? It is just a circuit that materializes an abstract digit (most frequently, converting it into a voltage). A parallel voltage summer having binary-weighted inputs can do this work. In this example (Fig. 8), a 3-bit digital device drives the DAC. Here we suppose that the high voltage levels of the three digital outputs are relatively equal; this voltage serves as a reference V REF. The output voltage is: VOUT = 0.1 x b0 x VREF + 0.2 x b1 x VREF + 0.4 x b2 x VREF For example, you can connect such a simple DAC to the parallel computer port (such as a printer port). The resistor R is absolutely necessary in this application; it adds the sum of the input coefficients up to 1 (according to Daisy's theorem). You can use the nice Brandy's formula to calculate the resistances.

[edit]Audio

mixer

Fig. 9. A parallel voltage summer can mix audio signals.

Another popular application of the parallel summing circuit is audio mixing of analog signals from a few voltage sources. Note again that the parallel summer not just sums the signals; it also attenuates them. In this case, this feature is useful.

Summer and subtractor opamp circuits

Question 1:

Don't just sit there! Build something!!

Learning to mathematically analyze circuits requires much study and practice. Typically, students practice by working through lots of sample problems and checking their answers against those provided by the textbook or the instructor. While this is good, there is a much better way. You will learn much more by actually building and analyzing real circuits, letting your test equipment provide the nswers" instead of a book or another person. For successful circuit-building exercises, follow these steps:

1. Carefully measure and record all component values prior to circuit construction. 2. Draw the schematic diagram for the circuit to be analyzed. 3. Carefully build this circuit on a breadboard or other convenient medium. 4. Check the accuracy of the circuit's construction, following each wire to each connection point, and verifying these elements one-byone on the diagram.

5. Mathematically analyze the circuit, solving for all voltage and current values. 6. Carefully measure all voltages and currents, to verify the accuracy of your analysis. 7. If there are any substantial errors (greater than a few percent), carefully check your circuit's construction against the diagram, then carefully re-calculate the values and re-measure.

Avoid using the model 741 op-amp, unless you want to challenge your circuit design skills. There are more versatile op-amp models commonly available for the beginner. I recommend the LM324 for DC and low-frequency AC circuits, and the TL082 for AC projects involving audio or higher frequencies. As usual, avoid very high and very low resistor values, to avoid measurement errors caused by meter "loading". I recommend resistor values between 1 k and 100 k. One way you can save time and reduce the possibility of error is to begin with a very simple circuit and incrementally add components to increase its complexity after each analysis, rather than building a whole new circuit for each practice problem. Another time-saving technique is to re-use the same components in a variety of different circuit configurations. This way, you won't have to measure any component's value more than once. Reveal Answer

Question 2:
The simple resistor network shown here is known as a passive averager. Describe what the word "passive" means in this context, and write an equation describing the output voltage (Vd) in terms of the input voltages (Va, Vb, and Vc):

Hint: there is a network theorem that directly applies to this form of circuit, and it is known as Millman's Theorem. Research this theorem and use it to generate your equation! Reveal Answer

Question 3:
Add an op-amp circuit to the output of this passive averager network to produce a summer circuit: an operational circuit generating an output voltage equal to the sum of the four input voltages. Then, write an equation describing the whole circuit's function.

Reveal Answer

Question 4:
Write a mathematical equation for this op-amp circuit, assuming all resistor values are equal:

What is this circuit typically called? Reveal Answer

Question 5:
This opamp circuit is known as a difference amplifier, sometimes called a subtractor. Assuming that all resistor values are equal in the circuit, write an equation expressing the output (y) as a function of the two input voltages (a and b):

Reveal Answer

Question 6:
Determine all current magnitudes and directions, as well as voltage drops, in this circuit:

Reveal Answer

Question 7:
Determine all current magnitudes and directions, as well as voltage drops, in this circuit:

Reveal Answer

Question 8:
Determine the amount of current from point A to point B in this circuit:

Reveal Answer

Question 9:
Determine the amount of current from point A to point B in this circuit, and also the output voltage of the operational amplifier:

Reveal Answer

Question 10:
Identify some of the distinguishing characteristics of inverting and noninverting summer circuits. How may you identify which is which, and how may you determine the proper resistor values to make each one work as it should? Reveal Answer

Question 11:
Complete the table of values for this opamp circuit, calculating the output voltage for each combination of input voltages shown:

V1

V2

Vout

0V

0V

+1 V

0V

0V

+1 V

+2 V

+1.5 V

+3.4 V

+1.2 V

-2 V

+4 V

+5 V

+5 V

-3 V

-3 V

What pattern do you notice in the data? What mathematical relationship is there between the two input voltages and the output voltage? Reveal Answer

Question 12:
How does the operation of this difference amplifier circuit compare with the resistor values given (2R = twice the resistance of R), versus its operation with all resistor values equal?

Describe what approach or technique you used to derive your answer, and also explain how your conclusion for this circuit might be generalized for all difference amplifier circuits. Reveal Answer

Question 13:

If a weak voltage signal is conveyed from a source to an amplifier, the amplifier may detect more than just the desired signal. Along with the desired signal, external electronic "noise" may be coupled to the transmission wire from AC sources such as power line conductors, radio waves, and other electromagnetic interference sources. Note the two waveshapes, representing voltages along the transmission wire measured with reference to earth ground:

Shielding of the transmission wire is always a good idea in electrically noisy environments, but there is a more elegant solution than simply trying to shield interference from getting to the wire. Instead of using a single-ended amplifier to receive the signal, we can transmit the signal along two wires and use adifference amplifier at the receiving end. Note the four waveforms shown, representing voltages at those points measured with reference to earth ground:

If the two wires are run parallel to each other the whole distance, so as to be exposed to the exact same noise sources along that distance, the noise voltage at the end of the bottom wire will be the same noise voltage as that superimposed on the signal at the end of the top wire. Explain how the difference amplifier is able to restore the original (clean) signal voltage from the two noise-ridden voltages seen at its inputs with respect to ground, and also how the phrase common-mode voltage applies to this scenario. Reveal Answer

Question 14:
Singers who wish to practice singing to popular music find that the following vocal eliminator circuit is useful:

The circuit works on the principle that vocal tracks are usually recorded through a single microphone at the recording studio, and thus are

represented equally on each channel of a stereo sound system. This circuit effectively eliminates the vocal track from the song, leaving only the music to be heard through the headphone or speaker. Explain how the operational amplifiers accomplish this task of vocal track elimination. What role does each opamp play in this circuit? Reveal Answer

Question 15:
The following circuit is known as an instrumentation amplifier:

Suppose a DC voltage were to be applied to the noninverting input terminal, +1 volt at V in(+), and the inverting input terminal grounded. Complete the following table showing the output voltage of this circuit for different values of m:

Vout

Reveal Answer

Question 16:
Find the datasheet for a real instrumentation amplifier (packaged as a single integrated circuit) and bring it to class for discussion with your classmates. Analyze and discuss the inner workings of the circuit, and some of its performance parameters. If you do not know where to begin looking, try researching the Analog Devices model AD623, either in a reference book or on the internet. Reveal Answer

Question 17:
The following circuit is a type of difference amplifier, similar in behavior to the instrumentation amplifier, but only using two operational amplifiers instead of three:

Complete the table of values for this opamp circuit, calculating the output voltage for each combination of input voltages shown. From the calculated values of output voltage, determine which input of this circuit is inverting, and which is noninverting, and also how much differential voltage gain this circuit has. Express these conclusions in the form of an equation.

V1

V2

Vout

0V

0V

+1 V

0V

0V

+1 V

+2 V

+1.5 V

+3.4 V

+1.2 V

-2 V

+4 V

+5 V

+5 V

-3 V

-3 V

Reveal Answer

Question 18:
An important parameter of any differential amplifier - bare opamps and difference amplifiers made from opamps alike - is common-mode rejection, or CMR. Explain what this parameter means, how the following circuit tests this parameter, and why it is important to us:

Reveal Answer

Question 19:
Explain what common-mode rejection ratio means for a differential amplifier, and give a formula for calculating it. Reveal Answer

Question 20:
Predict how the operation of this passive averager network will be affected as a result of the following faults. Consider each fault independently (i.e. one at a time, no multiple faults):

 Resistor R1 fails open: Solder bridge (short) across resistor R1: Resistor R2 fails open: Solder bridge (short) across resistor R2: Resistor R3 fails open: Solder bridge (short) across resistor R3:

For each of these conditions, explain why the resulting effects will occur. Reveal Answer

Question 21:
Predict how the operation of this summer circuit will be affected as a result of the following faults. Consider each fault independently (i.e. one at a time, no multiple faults):

 Resistor R1 fails open: Solder bridge (short) across resistor R3: Resistor R4 fails open: Resistor R5 fails open: Solder bridge (short) across resistor R5: Resistor R6 fails open:

For each of these conditions, explain why the resulting effects will occur. Reveal Answer

Question 22:
Predict how the operation of this summer circuit will be affected as a result of the following faults. Consider each fault independently (i.e. one at a time, no multiple faults):

Resistor R1 fails open: Resistor R2 fails open: Solder bridge (short) across resistor R3:

 Resistor R4 fails open: Solder bridge (short) across resistor R4:

For each of these conditions, explain why the resulting effects will occur. Reveal Answer

Question 23:
Predict how the operation of this difference amplifier circuit will be affected as a result of the following faults. Consider each fault independently (i.e. one at a time, no multiple faults):

Resistor R1 fails open: Resistor R2 fails open: Solder bridge (short) across resistor R3: Resistor R4 fails open: Solder bridge (short) across resistor R4:

For each of these conditions, explain why the resulting effects will occur. Reveal Answer

Question 24:
The instrumentation amplifier is a popular circuit configuration for analog signal conditioning in a wide variety of electronic measurement

applications. One of the reasons it is so popular is that its differential gain may be set by changing the value of a single resistor, the value of which is represented in this schematic by a multiplier constant named m:

There is an equation describing the differential gain of an instrumentation amplifier, but it is easy enough to research so I'll leave that detail up to you. What I'd like you to do here is algebraically derive that equation based on what you know of inverting and noninverting operational amplifier circuits. Suppose we apply +1 volt to the noninverting input and ground the inverting input, giving a differential input voltage of 1 volt. Whatever voltage appears at the output of the instrumentation amplifier circuit, then, directly represents the voltage gain:

A hint for constructing an algebraic explanation for the circuit's output voltage is to view the two "buffer" opamps separately, as inverting and noninverting amplifiers:

Note which configuration (inverting or noninverting) each of these circuits resemble, develop transfer functions for each (Output = In put), then combine the two equations in a manner representing what the subtractor circuit will do. Your final result should be the gain equation for an instrumentation amplifier in terms of m. Reveal Answer

Question 25:
Calculate the voltage gain of the following opamp circuit with the potentiometer turned fully up, precisely mid-position, and fully down:

AV (pot fully up) = AV (pot mid-position) = AV (pot fully down) =

Reveal Answer

Voltage doubler
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A voltage doubler is an electronic circuit which charges capacitors from the input voltage and switches these charges in such a way that, in the ideal case, exactly twice the voltage is produced at the output as at its input. The simplest of these circuits are a form of rectifier which take an AC voltage as input and output a doubled DC voltage. The switching elements are simple diodes and they are driven to switch state merely by the alternating voltage of the input. DC to DC voltage doublers cannot switch in this way and require a driving circuit to control the switching. They frequently also require a switching element that can be controlled directly, such as a transistor, rather than relying on the voltage across the switch as in the simple AC to DC case. Voltage doublers are a variety of voltage multiplier circuit. Many (but not all) voltage doubler circuits can be viewed as a single stage of a higher order multiplier: cascading identical stages together achieves a greater voltage multiplication.
Contents
[hide]

1 Voltage doubling rectifiers

o o o

1.1 Villard circuit 1.2 Greinacher circuit 1.3 Bridge circuit

2 Switched capacitor circuits

o o

2.1 Dickson charge pump 2.2 Cross-coupled switched capacitors

3 See also 4 References 5 Bibliography

[edit]Voltage

doubling rectifiers

[edit]Villard

circuit

Figure 1. Villard circuit

The Villard circuit consists simply of a capacitor and a diode. While it has the great benefit of simplicity, its output has very poor ripple characteristics. Essentially, the circuit is a diode clamp circuit. The capacitor is charged on the negative half cycles to the peak AC voltage (Vpk). The output is the superposition of the input AC waveform and the steady DC of the capacitor. The effect of the circuit is to shift the DC value of the waveform. The negative peaks of the AC waveform are "clamped" to 0 V (actually VF, the small forward bias voltage of the diode) by the diode, therefore the positive peaks of the output waveform are 2 Vpk. The peak-topeak ripple is an enormous 2Vpk and cannot be smoothed unless the circuit is effectively turned into one of the more sophisticated forms.[1] This is the circuit (with diode reversed) used to supply the negative high voltage for the magnetron in a microwave oven.
[edit]Greinacher

circuit

Figure 2. Greinacher circuit

The Greinacher voltage doubler is a significant improvement over the Villard circuit for a small cost in additional components. The ripple is much reduced, nominally zero under open-circuit load conditions, but when current is being drawn depends on the resistance of the load and the value of the capacitors used. The circuit works by following a Villard cell stage with what is in essence a peak detector or envelope detector stage. The peak detector cell has the effect of removing most of the ripple while preserving the peak voltage in the output.

Figure 3. Voltage quadrupler two Greinacher cells of opposite polarities

This circuit was first invented by Heinrich Greinacher in 1913 (published 1914[2]) to provide the 200300 V he needed for his newly invented ionometer, the 110 V AC supplied by the Zurich power stations of the time being insufficient.[3] He later (1920) extended this idea into a cascade of multipliers.[4] This cascade of Greinacher

cells is often inaccurately referred to as a Villard cascade. It is also called a CockcroftWalton multiplier after the particle acceleratormachine built by John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton, who independently rediscovered the circuit in 1932.[5] The concept in this topology can be extended to a voltage quadrupler circuit by using two Greinacher cells of opposite polarities driven from the same AC source. The output is taken across the two individual outputs. As with a bridge circuit, it is impossible to simultaneously ground the input and output of this circuit. [6]
[edit]Bridge

circuit

Figure 4. Bridge (Delon) voltage doubler

The Delon circuit uses a bridge topology for voltage doubling. This form of circuit was, at one time, commonly found in cathode ray tube television sets where it was used to provide an e.h.t. voltage supply. Generating voltages in excess of 5 kV with a transformer has safety issues in terms of domestic equipment and in any case is uneconomic. However, black and white television sets required an e.h.t. of 10 kV and colour sets even more. Voltage doublers were used to either double the voltage on an e.h.t winding on the mains transformer or were applied to the waveform on the line flyback coils.[7] The circuit consists of two half-wave peak detectors, functioning in exactly the same way as the peak detector cell in the Greinacher circuit. Each of the two peak detector cells operates on opposite half-cycles of the incoming waveform. Since their outputs are in series, the output is twice the peak input voltage.
[edit]Switched

capacitor circuits

Figure 5. Switched capacitor voltage doubler achieved by simply switching charged capacitors from parallel to series

It is possible to use the simple diode-capacitor circuits described above to double the voltage of a DC source by preceding the voltage doubler with a chopper circuit. In effect, this converts the DC to AC before application to the voltage doubler.[8] More efficient circuits can be built by driving the switching devices from an external clock so that both functions, the chopping and multiplying, are achieved simultaneously. Such circuits are known as switched capacitor circuits. This approach is especially useful in low-voltage battery-powered applications where integrated circuits require a voltage supply greater than the battery can deliver. Frequently, a clock signal is readily available on board the integrated circuit and little or no additional circuitry is needed to generate it.[9] Conceptually, perhaps the simplest switched capacitor configuration is that shown schematically in figure 5. Here two capacitors are simultaneously charged to the same voltage in parallel. The supply is then switched off and the capacitors are switched into series. The output is taken from across the two capacitors in series resulting in an output double the supply voltage. There are many different switching devices that could be used in such a circuit, but in integrated circuits MOSFET devices are frequently employed.[10]

Figure 6. Charge-pump voltage doubler schematic

Another basic concept is the charge pump, a version of which is shown schematically in figure 6. The charge pump capacitor, CP, is first charged to the input voltage. It is then switched to charging the output capacitor, C O, in series with the input voltage resulting in CO eventually being charged to twice the input voltage. It may take several cycles before the charge pump succeeds in fully charging CO but after steady state has been reached it is only necessary for CP to pump a small amount of charge equivalent to that being supplied to the load from CO. While CO is disconnected from the charge pump it partially discharges into the load resulting in ripple on the output voltage. This ripple is smaller for higher clock frequencies since the discharge time is shorter, and is also easier to filter. Alternatively, the capacitors can be made smaller for a given ripple specification. The practical maximum clock frequency in integrated circuits is typically in the hundreds of kHz.[11]
[edit]Dickson

charge pump

Figure 7. Dickson charge-pump voltage-doubler

The Dickson charge pump, or Dickson multiplier, consists of a cascade of diode/capacitor cells with the bottom plate of each capacitor driven by aclock pulse train. The circuit is a modification of the Cockcroft-Walton multiplier but takes a DC input with the clock trains providing the switching signal instead of the an AC input. The Dickson multiplier normally requires that alternate cells are driven from clock pulses of opposite phase. However, since a voltage doubler, shown in figure 7, requires only one stage of multiplication only one clock signal is required.[12] The Dickson multiplier is frequently employed in integrated circuits where the supply voltage (from a battery for instance) is lower than that required by the circuitry. It is advantageous in integrated circuit manufacture that all the semiconductor components are of basically the same type. MOSFETs are commonly the standard logic block in many integrated circuits. For this reason the diodes are often replaced by this type of transistor, but wired to function as a diode - an arrangement called a diode-wired MOSFET. Figure 8 shows a Dickson voltage doubler using diode-wired n-channel enhancement type MOSFETs.[13]

Figure 8. Dickson voltage doubler using diode-wired MOSFETs

There are many variations and improvements to the basic Dickson charge pump. Many of these are concerned with reducing the effect of the transistor drain-source voltage. This can be very significant if the input voltage is small, such as a low-voltage battery. With ideal switching elements the output is an integral multiple of the input (two for a doubler) but with a single-cell battery as the input source and MOSFET switches the output will be far less than this value since much of the voltage will be dropped across the transistors. For a circuit using discrete components the Schottky diode would be a better choice of switching element for its extremely low voltage drop in the on state. However, integrated circuit designers prefer to use the easily available MOSFET and compensate for its inadequacies with increased circuit complexity.[14] As an example, an alkaline battery cell has a nominal voltage of 1.5 V. A voltage doubler using ideal switching elements with zero voltage drop will output double this, namely 3.0 V. However the drain-source voltage drop of a diode-wired MOSFET when it is in the on state must be at least the gate threshold voltage which might typically be 0.9 V.[15] This voltage "doubler" will only succeed in raising the output voltage by about 0.6 V to 2.1

V. If the drop across the final smoothing transistor is also taken into account the circuit may not be able to increase the voltage at all without using multiple stages. A typical Schottky diode, on the other hand, might have an on state voltage of 0.3 V.[16] A doubler using this Schottky diode will result in a voltage of 2.7 V at the output.[17]
[edit]Cross-coupled

switched capacitors

Figure 9. Cross-coupled switched-capacitor voltage doubler

Cross-coupled switched capacitor circuits come into their own for very low input voltages. Wireless battery driven equipment (pagers, bluetooth devices and the like) may require a single-cell battery to continue to supply power when it has discharged to under a volt.[18] When clock is low transistor Q2 is turned off. At the same time clock is high turning on transistor

Q1 resulting in capacitor C1 being charged toVin. When

goes high the top plate of C1 is pushed up to

twice Vin. At the same time switch S1 closes so this voltage appears at the output. At the same time Q2 is turned on allowing C2 to charge. On the next half cycle the roles will be reversed: will be low, will be high,

S1 will open and S2will close. Thus, the output is supplied with 2Vin alternately from each side of the circuit.[19] The loss is low in this circuit because there are no diode-wired MOSFETs and their associated threshold voltage problems. The circuit also has the advantage that the ripple frequency is doubled because there are effectively two voltage doublers both supplying the output from out of phase clocks. The primary disadvantage of this circuit is that stray capacitances are much more significant than with the Dickson multiplier and account for the larger part of the losses in this circuit.[20]
[edit]See

also

Voltage multiplier
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Voltage-multiplier circuit)

Villard cascade voltage multiplier.

A voltage multiplier is an electrical circuit that converts AC electrical power from a lower voltage to a higher DC voltage, typically using a network of capacitors and diodes. Voltage multipliers can be used to generate a few volts for electronic appliances, to millions of volts for purposes such as high-energy physics experiments and lightning safety testing. The most common type of voltage multiplier is the half-wave series multiplier, also called the Villard cascade (but actually invented by Heinrich Greinacher).

Contents
[hide]

1 Operation 2 Voltage doubler and tripler 3 Breakdown voltage 4 Other circuit topologies

4.1 Dickson charge pump

4.1.1 Modification for RF power

4.2 Cross-coupled switched capacitor

5 Applications 6 See also 7 Notes 8 Bibliography 9 External links

[edit]Operation
Assuming that the peak voltage of the AC source is +Us, and that the C values are sufficiently high to allow, when charged, that a current flows with no significant change in voltage, then the (simplified) working of the cascade is as follows:

1. negative peak (Us): The C1 capacitor is charged through diode D1 to Us V (potential difference between left and right plate of the capacitor is Us) 2. positive peak (+Us): the potential of C1 adds with that of the source, thus charging C2 to 2Us through D2 3. negative peak: potential of C1 drops to 0 V thus allowing C3 to be charged through D3 to 2Us. 4. positive peak: potential of C1 rises to 2Us (analogously to step 2), also charging C4 to 2Us. The output voltage (the sum of voltages under C2 and C4) raises till 4Us.

In reality more cycles are required for C4 to reach the full voltage. Each additional stage of two diodes and two capacitors increases the output voltage by twice the peak AC supply voltage.

[edit]Voltage

doubler and tripler

See also: Voltage doubler A voltage doubler uses two stages to approximately double the DC voltage that would have been obtained from a single-stage rectifier. An example of a voltage doubler is found in the input stage of switch mode power supplies containing a SPDT switch to select either 120 volt or 240 volt supply. In the 120 volt position the input is typically configured as a full-wave voltage doubler by opening one AC connection point of a bridge rectfier, and connecting the input to the junction of two series-connected filter capacitors. For 240 volt operation, the switch configures the system as a full-wave bridge, re-connecting the capacitor center-tap wire to the open AC terminal of a bridge rectfier system. This allows 120 or 240 volt operation with the addition of a simple SPDT switch. A voltage tripler is a three-stage voltage multiplier. A tripler is a popular type of voltage multiplier. The output voltage of a tripler is in practice below three times the peak input voltage due to their high impedance, caused in part by the fact that as each capacitor in the chain supplies power to the next, it partially discharges, losing voltage doing so. Triplers were commonly used in color television receivers to provide the high voltage for the cathode ray tube (picture tube). Many 1970s TV sets used open triplers, and the individual diode sticks could be replaced if they failed.[citation needed] Triplers are still used in high voltage supplies such as copiers, laser printers, bug zappers and electroshock weapons.

[edit]Breakdown

voltage

While the multiplier can be used to produce thousands of volts of output, the individual components do not need to be rated to withstand the entire voltage range. Each component only needs to be concerned with the relative voltage differences directly across its own terminals and of the components immediately adjacent to it. Typically a voltage multiplier will be physically arranged like a ladder, so that the progressively increasing voltage potential is not given the opportunity to arc across to the much lower potential sections of the circuit. Note that some safety margin is needed across the relative range of voltage differences in the multiplier, so that the ladder can survive the shorted failure of at least one diode or capacitor component. Otherwise a singlepoint shorting failure could successively over-voltage and destroy each next component in the multiplier, potentially destroying the entire multiplier chain.

[edit]Other

circuit topologies

Two cascades driven by a single center-tapped transformer. This configuration provides full-wave rectification leading to less ripple and upon any collapse from arcing capacitive energy can cancel.

Stacking

A second cascade stacked onto the first one driven by a high voltage isolated second secondary winding. The second winding is connected with 180 phase shift to get full wave rectification. The two windings need to be insulated against the large voltage between them.

A single secondary winding of a transformer driving two cascades of opposite polarities at the same time. Stacking the two cascades provides an output of twice the voltage but with better ripple and capacitor charging characteristics than would be achieved with a single long cascade of the same voltage.

An even number of diode-capacitor cells is used in any column so that the cascade ends on a smoothing cell. If it were odd and ended on a clamping cell the ripple voltage would be very large. Larger capacitors in the connecting column also reduce ripple but at the expense of charging time and increased diode current.

[edit]Dickson

charge pump

Standard Dickson charge pump. 4-stage (x5 multiplier)

The Dickson charge pump, or Dickson multiplier, is a modification of the Greinacher/CockcroftWalton multiplier. Unlike that circuit, however, the Dickson multiplier takes a DC supply as its input so is a form of DCto-DC converter. Also unlike Greinacher/CockcroftWalton which is used on high-voltage applications, the Dickson multiplier is intended for low-voltage purposes. In addition to the DC input, the circuit requires a feed of two clock pulse trains with an amplitude swinging between the DC supply rails. These pulse trains are in antiphase.[1]

To describe the ideal operation of the circuit, number the diodes D1, D2 etc. from left to right and the capacitors C1, C2 etc. When the clock is low, D1 will charge C1 to Vin. When goes high the top plate of C1 is

pushed up to 2Vin. D1 is then turned off and D2 turned on and C2 begins to charge to 2Vin. On the next clock cycle again goes low and now goes high pushing the top plate of C2 to 3Vin. D2 switches off and D3

switches on, charging C3 to 3Vin and so on with charge passing up the chain, hence the name charge pump. The final diode-capacitor cell in the cascade is connected to ground rather than a clock phase and hence is not a multiplier; it is a peak detector which merely provides smoothing.[2] There are a number of factors which reduce the output from the ideal case of nVin. One of these is the threshold voltage, VT of the switching device, that is, the voltage required to turn it on. The output will be reduced by at least nVT due to the volt drops across the switches. Schottky diodes are commonly used in Dickson multipliers for their low forward voltage drop, amongst other reasons. Another difficulty is that there are parasitic capacitances to ground at each node. These parasitic capacitances act as voltage dividers with the circuit's storage capacitors reducing the output voltage still further.[3] Up to a point, a higher clock frequency is beneficial: the ripple is reduced and the high frequency makes the remaining ripple easier to filter. Also the size of capacitors needed is reduced since less charge needs to be stored per cycle. However, losses through stray capacitance increase with increasing clock frequency and a practical limit is around a few hundred kilohertz.[4]

Dickson charge pump using diode-wired MOSFETs. 4-stage (x5 multiplier)

Dickson multipliers are frequently found in integrated circuits (ICs) where they are used to increase a lowvoltage battery supply to the voltage needed by the IC. It is advantageous to the IC designer and manufacturer to be able to use the same technology and the same basic device throughout the IC. For this reason, in the popular CMOS technology ICs the transistor which forms the basic building block of circuits is the MOSFET. Consequently, the diodes in the Dickson multiplier are often replaced with MOSFETs wired to behave as diodes.[5]

Dickson charge pump with linear MOSFET in parallel with diode-wired MOSFET. 4-stage (x5 multiplier)

The diode-wired MOSFET version of the Dickson multiplier does not work very well at very low voltages because of the large drain-source volt drops of the MOSFETs. Frequently, a more complex circuit is used to overcome this problem. One solution is to connect in parallel with the switching MOSFET another MOSFET biased into its linear region. This second MOSFET has a lower drain-source voltage than the switching MOSFET would have on its own (because the switching MOSFET is driven hard on) and consequently the output voltage is increased. The gate of the linear biased MOSFET is connected to the output of the next stage so that it is turned off while the next stage is charging from the previous stage's capacitor. That is, the linearbiased transistor is turned off at the same time as the switching transistor.[6] An ideal 4-stage Dickson multiplier (x5 multiplier) with an input of 1.5 V would have an output of 7.5 V. However, a diode-wired MOSFET 4-stage multiplier might only have an output of 2 V. Adding parallel MOSFETs in the linear region improves this to around 4 V. More complex circuits still can achieve an output much closer to the ideal case.[7] Many other variations and improvements to the basic Dickson circuit exist. Some attempt to reduce the switching threshold voltage such as the Mandal-Sarpeshkar multiplier[8] or the Wu multiplier.[9] Other circuits cancel out the threshold voltage: the Umeda multiplier does it with an externally provided voltage[10] and the Nakamoto multiplier with internally generated voltage.[11]The Bergeret multiplier concentrates on maximising power efficiency.[12]

[edit]Modification for RF power

Modified Dickson charge pump. 2-stage (3 multiplier)

In CMOS integrated circuits clock signals are readily available, or else easily generated. This is not always the case in RFintegrated circuits, but often a source of RF power will be available. The standard Dickson multiplier circuit can be modified to meet this requirement by simply grounding the normal input and one of the clock inputs. RF power is injected into the other clock input, which then becomes the circuit input. The RF signal is effectively the clock as well as the source of power. However, since the clock is injected only into every other node the circuit only achieves a stage of multiplication for every second diode-capacitor cell. The other diodecapacitor cells are merely acting as peak detectors and smoothing the ripple without increasing the multiplication.[13]

[edit]Cross-coupled

switched capacitor

Cascade of cross-coupled MOSFET voltage doublers. 3-stage (x4 multiplier)

A voltage multiplier may be formed of a cascade of voltage doublers of the cross-coupled switched capacitor type. This type of circuit is typically used instead of a Dickson multiplier when the source voltage is 1.2 V or less. Dickson multipliers have increasingly poor power conversion efficiency as the input voltage drops because the voltage drop across the diode-wired transistors becomes much more significant compared to the output voltage. Since the transistors in the cross-coupled circuit are not diode-wired the volt-drop problem is not so serious.[14] The circuit works by alternately switching the output of each stage between a voltage doubler driven by and one driven by . This behaviour leads to another advantage over the Dickson multiplier; reduced

ripple voltage at double the frequency. The increase in ripple frequency is advantageous because it is easier to remove by filtering. Each stage (in an ideal circuit) raises the output voltage by the peak clock voltage. Assuming that this is the same level as the DC input voltage then an n stage multiplier will (ideally) output nVin. The chief cause of losses in the cross-coupled circuit is parasitic capacitance rather than switching threshold voltage. The losses occur because some of the energy has to go into charging up the parasitic capacitances on each cycle.[15]

[edit]Applications

TV cascade (green) and flyback transformer (blue).

The high-voltage supplies for cathode ray tubes often use voltage multipliers with the final-stage smoothing capacitor formed by the interior and exterior aquadag coatings on the CRT itself. A common type of voltage multiplier used in high-energy physics is the CockcroftWalton generator (which was designed by John Douglas Cockcroft and Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton for a particle accelerator, for use in research that won them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951).

[edit]See

also

A voltage inverter circuit

Our programmable MP3 player has an interface to an LCD with a HD44780 controller. These are alphanumeric LCDs with one to 4 lines of text and 16 to 40 characters per line. However, these LCDs (and LCDs in general) exist in two varieties: those that require a positive LC-driving voltage and those that need a negative LC-driving voltage. The H0420 (the programmable MP3 player that I referred to earlier) only supports LCDs with a positive LC-driving voltage, because it takes its power directly from a common (asymetric) mains power adapter.

A voltage inverter (that creates a negative tension from a positive one) would enable you to connect an LCD with a negative LC-driving voltage to the H0420. The (negative) output voltage must be adjustable because the optimal LC-driving voltage depends on the view angle and the temperature. The H0420 already has a pin for a positive LC-driving voltage between 0V and +5V. Our circuit must "intercept" this pin and modify it to produce a negative voltage.

The circuit

The image below shows the voltage inverter circuit, which is centred around the well known 555 timer chip. The schematic consists of three parts: an oscillator that converts DC in AC, a special kind of rectifier that converts AC to DC (but now negative), and a voltage regulator. None of the component values is critical, by the way.

The 555 timer chip is wired as an oscillator. As is covered in detail in many books and articles, the "high period" of the cycle takes 0.693(R1+R2)C1 seconds and the low period takes 0.693R2C1 seconds. With the values of R1, R2 and C1, this produces a nearly square wave at roughly 1.3 kHz at pin 3.

The two diodes look like half of a rectifier bridge and indeed they do produce a DC signal, but in a different way than the common diode bridges. When pin 3 of the 555 is high, diode D1 conducts (and diode D2 blocks) and thereby the 555 charges capacitor C2. When pin 3 toggles low, D1 blocks. There is still a charge in C2 and the "+" side of the capacitor is now the zero-volt level (because pin 3 is temporarily at zero volt). The other side must then be minus VCC, if I am allowed to ignore the threshold of D1 for the moment. That, in turn, means that diode D2 conducts and that C2 charges C3... with a negative voltage. Capacitor C3 functions as a smoothing capacitor.

As said, the output tension must be controllable (i.e. adjustable). An easy way to do so is to make an adjustable voltage divider with one fixed resistor and one variable resitor. This is the combination of R3 and Q1; Q1 is a P-channel junction FET, for which I have used the J175.

End notes

Due to the voltage threshold of the diodes, the output range is from zero volt to approximately -3.8V (with Vcc at 5V). The relation to the control voltage (INPUT in the schematic) and the output voltage is not linear. This was not important for my application, but it needs to be mentioned.

Before arriving at this circuit, I have tried to use the control voltage as Vcc, and drop R3 and Q1. However, in the design of the H0420, the LC-driving voltage pin could not produce sufficient current to feed the 555 chip. In addition, the standard 555 needs a power supply of at least 4.5V. There are alternative implementations of the 555: a low-power CMOS version of the 555 would comply with the current supply of the LC-driving voltage pin of the H0420, and versions that work on 3V exist too. I have not tried these, but opted instead for the R3/Q1 voltage divider and a stable Vcc of 5V.

This circuit fits on a piece of experimation board of 12 by 5 pins with normal components. You can make it smaller with a custom PCB, and smaller still by using SMD components. I have put the PCB directly in the ribbon cable that links the LCD to the H0420 (the GROUND, VCC and LC-driving voltage pins are close together in the ribbon cable).

Copyright 2010, Thiadmer Riemersma, CompuPhase Updated: 2010-03-09

This work is licensed under a