DATA TABLE A: Component Values
Nominal Value Color Code Measured Value Percentage Error
330 Ω
1 kΩ
3.3 kΩ
10 kΩ
10 kΩ
100 kΩ
100

F
100

F
Also compute the percentage error for each component. Your resistors’ percentage errors should be
less than 5%, and the capacitor’s percentage error should be less than 20%.
EET 114 Lab 9 - Page 1
A SIMPLE RECTIFIER
The first AC/DC circuit that we will build is called a rectifier. Its purpose is to convert an AC voltage to
a DC voltage. (Many devices in your home that plug into the wall outlet need DC voltages to operate
correctly. Since the electricity that comes from the wall outlet is AC, not DC, these devices need to
contain rectifier circuits that create a DC voltage from an AC voltage. That is why you will find rectifier
circuits inside many common electronic devices, such as computers, televisions, and stereos.)
Rectifier circuits use diodes. Unlike a resistor, a diode allows current to flow in one direction only. The
diode’s two terminals are given special names: one is the anode, and the other is the cathode. Take a
look at your 1N4003 diode, and you’ll see that one end of the diode’s body has a band printed on it. This
band identifies the cathode end of the diode. In schematic diagrams, the diode is represented by the
symbol shown below. In this symbol, the right-hand end is the cathode.
If you connect a diode to a DC power supply with the anode toward the supply’s positive terminal and the
cathode toward the negative terminal, then current will flow. If you reverse the connections, however,
current will not flow. To see that this is true, build the circuit shown below, with the diode’s anode
connected to the power supply’s positive terminal.
Use a multimeter to measure the DC current flowing through the resistor, and record the value in the first
row of Data Table B. Then turn the diode around, so that its cathode is connected to the power supply’s
positive terminal. Measure the DC current flowing through the resistor, and record the value in the
second row of the table.
Data Table B: Current through a Diode
Current with Anode connected to Positive Terminal
Current with Cathode connected to Positive Terminal
You should have found that current flowed in the first circuit, but that little or no current flowed in the
second circuit. Is that what you found?
_______________________(yes or no?)
So the diode is like a one-way valve to current. This is what lets it convert AC voltages to DC voltages in
rectifier circuits. In fact, the simplest type of rectifier circuit is similar to the circuit that you just built,
but with an AC source replacing the DC source.
EET 114 Lab 9 - Page 2