Industrial Rectifier Circuits: AC-to-DC Conversion

One of the most widely used electronic circuits to convert voltage is called the rectifier circuit. Since the rectifier circuit uses diodes to convert ac voltage to dc, it's also called a converter circuit. All power that is supplied to a modern factory is alternating current (ac), so it's important to have circuits that can convert the ac power to dc power since most solid-state devices require a source of dc power to operate. Several single-phase rectifier circuits will be provided to help review the basic principles that are necessary to understand the more complex three-phase converter circuits.

Single-Phase Rectifiers