What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a bridge

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a bridge rectifier rather than a full wave rectifier?

Solution

1) Advantages of bridge rectifier

a) No centre tapping is required in the transformer secondary so in case of a bridge rectifier the transformer required is simpler. If stepping up or stepping down of voltage is not required, transformer can be eliminated even.

b) The PIV is one half that of full wave rectifier. Hence bridge rectifier is highly suited for high voltage applications.

c) Transformer utilization factor, in case of a bridge rectifier, is higher than that of a full wave rectifier.

d) The output is twice that of the full wave circuit for the same secondary voltage.

2) Disadvantages of Bridge rectifier:

a) The main Disadvantage of using Bridge rectifiers is that it requires four Diodes .

b) Because of this the total voltage drop in diodes becomes double, losses are increased and rectification efficiency is somewhat reduced.