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Revision as of 05:07, 7 July 2007

I've done a substantial rewrite of Diode bridge; at least two remaining items on my agenda for it:

• Rectifier is a redirect to here, but it should be a disamb between the sense of Rectifier diode (as opposed to e.g. laser diodes and LEDs) and the sense of Rectifier circuit; the latter is what should be linked from here.
• The attractive diagrams are not ideal, and my text tries to compensate for that on one hand, and to anticipate the two kinds of changes that could be made to them:
  • If they are edited without being completely redone, the letters "AC" should be removed (twice) in each diagram except the last.
  • If they are redrafted, putting the diodes one to an arm of a diamond-shaped figure, the inputs at opposite sides, the positive output at the top, and the negative output at the bottom would be preferable. (Should color be made so crucial to understanding? How about making only what is colored now, in the diagrams that have color, leaving the others, where no current flows, dotted. Not a convention i recall ever seeing in electronics, but effective w/o color.) The text description of the flows would change for that, and the wording would be much clearer and less awkward.

I'd also like to see half-wave rectification described, tho maybe it is just as well in Rectifier circuit. I'm not sure about voltage doubler and tripler circuits, as to inclusion at all, or whether they belong with the bridges. --Jerzy 05:37, 2004 Jan 18 (UTC)

I would like to see an extension for a three phase AC rectifier (with 6 diodes) and a reference to usage in automobile alternators, and a reference to the inventor, mr. Graetz. MH 213.51.209.230 19:00, 24 May 2004 (UTC)

Changed the diagrams to the new design, please check the text to be sure it matches. I went with colours over the monochrome, because I couldn't get the dotted diodes to look right. Let me know if you need any tweaks to the diagrams. -- DrBob 22:05, 5 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I have another suggestion. There really ought to be an entry for the general concept of the "bridge" ciruit, and I do not think there is one yet, so that readers can understand the meaning that the name diode "bridge" conveys. The current "electronics" entry is really to a networking meaning, not the circuit meaning. Bridge circuits are an extremely important general concept, in both a practical and a historic sense, and are closely tied to the idea of differential measurements. This would help to separate the rectification function from this particular kind of rectifier that uses a bridge configuration. By the way, this circuit has other uses. For instance, if you can stand the extra diode drop, a diode bridge is a way to build a circuit that does not care which way the battery is connected, so it is sometimes used even when AC is not involved. Also, diode bridge configurations are used in switches and modulators. AJim 16:57, 12 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Great, AJim; Edit boldly. The 'graph following the second color diagram does mention the reverse-connection aspect, but ignores the forward drops. But i don't think i ever asked "why 'bridge'?" and you've already motivated that term significantly for me on this talk page.

Let me know if you haven't already noticed our Redirects and Disambiguation pages (Dabs); if you're interested in Rectifier or Rectifier circuit, they're relevant, & i'll point you to descriptions somewhere. --Jerzy(t) 18:26, 2004 Mar 12 (UTC)

Hey, I created an image to show the effects of a filter capacitor but I can't figure out how to upload the image so it can be displayed right. I was going to place the image right before the paragraph that started with, "The capacitor and the load resistance have a typical time constant τ = RC where C and" in the "Output smoothing" section. I uploaded the image to image shack in the hopes that some one else will have better luck uploading the image. "http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/2181/filtereffectsmj1.png" - Bob Leny

Poly Phase Rectification

I really thnk that three phase and polyphase rectification should be in a separate article and not included under diode bridges. Anyone else agree? Light current 06:40, 1 August 2005 (UTC)

Maybe it's just me, but I really liked all this information under rectifier. After all, a bridge rectifier is considered a full wave rectifier. This would also explain what to do with all the other rectifiers, like the half wave and the polyphase rectifiers.... Bob Leny

Re: "As long as the load resistor is large enough ..., the above configuration will produce a well smoothed DC voltage across the load resistance. In some designs, a series resistor at the load side of the capacitor is added. The smoothing can then be improved by adding additional stages of capacitor–resistor pairs, often done only for sub-supplies to critical high-gain circuits that tend to be sensitive to supply voltage noise."

Sometimes it is hard to see what something is used for. Is this how a UPS supplies a perfect sign wave for delicate electronics like computers?

not an article about power supplies

The extension of the article from diode bridge to DC power supplies that use diode bridges is really incomplete. Maybe this topic should be moved to a power supply article? There are a number of important topics that an encyclopedic power supply article could discuss about this circuit configuration, such as the potential of inrush current to damage the diodes, and the harmonic distortion that such a supply can impose on the AC source (to the extent that many supplies now include "power factor correction" circuits), the need for "bleeder" circuilts, and other practical information, most of which is not about diode bridges.

AJim 05:07, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

other uses of diode bridges

they are more important than just rectifiers (as I mentioned earlier)

• switches
• modulators and demodulators

AJim 05:07, 7 July 2007 (UTC)