Regulation in Rectifiers

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,853
Regulators regulate.
Rectifiers rectify.

A regulator sets and maintains a specific (most often is a) DC voltage.
A rectifier allows current in one direction and blocks it in another.

A regulator used in a "rectified" circuit means AC is changed to DC, then the regulator (along with a few other components) regulates the voltage to whatever the design voltage calls for.
 

crutschow

Joined Mar 14, 2008
34,285
The "regulation" (output voltage change versus load current change) of a rectifier circuit wold depend upon the source (usually transformer) impedance, the type of rectifier, and the size of the filter capacitor.
It's generally not good enough for many electronic circuit requirements (a notable exception is many audio power amplifiers), so a regulator is added after the rectifier circuit.
 

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,853
Sorry @MaxHeadRoom I hadn't noticed. I use cut and paste from another page of components and symbols. Had I paid more attention I would have changed the ground ground to a common ground.

The BR is drawn with the ground symbol shown. The regulator circuit is drawn with the common ground. I just pasted the two together along with what was a center tapped transformer. The center taps were removed prior to taking a screen shot of the circuit I built for demonstration.
 
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