AC Circuits

Introduction
What’s the difference between A.C. and D.C.?
Transformers
Rectifiers
Capacitors
Resonance

Introduction
All the wiring in your house or apartment is AC all the wiring on the poles
outside is AC and since there are many other applications for AC an
understanding of how these circuits work is of considerable value.

What's the Difference between A.C. and D.C.?

Most people know that a battery cell gives "d.c." or "direct current" which
means that a steady voltage is available to drive your radio or whatever.
Less well understood is "a.c." which stands for "alternating current". An
AC voltage is usually produced by rotating a coil of wire within a
magnetic field. You wouldn't dream of connecting your 12 volt radio
directly to the power main in the fuse box because you know that it gives
at least 240 volts. But do you know that a 12-volt a.c. transformer can do
almost as much damage? The reason is that electronic equipment needs
not only LOW voltage but also low D.C. voltage. Let's take a quick look at
the method of making electricity.

In a power station, electricity can be made most easily and efficiently by

using a motor to spin magnetic wire coils. The resultant voltage is always
"alternating" by virtue of the motor's rotation. Fig.1 indicates how the
voltage goes first positive then negative - rather like turning a battery cell
continually backwards and forwards in its clip.

Now, alternating voltage can be carried around the country in cables far
more efficiently than direct current where the voltage is fixed. So the
electricity that arrives at your house is still alternating voltage. Electric
light bulbs and fires can run quite happily from 120 volt a.c. regular
household current. Other equipment such as televisions have an internal
power supply which converts the 120 volts a.c. to a low d.c. voltage that
is safe and acceptable to the electronic circuits. How is this done?

There are several ways but the simplest is to use a transformer to reduce
the voltage to, say 12 volts a.c. (Fig.2) This lower voltage can be fed
through a "rectifier" which combines the negative and positive alternating
cycles so that only positive cycles emerge. This "rectified" voltage (Fig.3)
is suitable for running things like filament bulbs and electric trains but it is
still no good for electronic circuits. So a "12 volt dc transformer" is no
good for electronic devices. What you need is "regulated d.c." which truly
simulates the steady voltage that you get from a battery.

Fig. 3 above

The first step is to connect a large value capacitor to the output of the
rectifier. A capacitor acts as a voltage reservoir and has the effect of
smoothing the "ripples". This is still not the same as a battery produces but
it's often good enough for charging batteries in mobile phones, personal
stereo equipment and similar equipment (Fig.4).
 Fig.4 above

The final step is to pass this "rippling d.c." through a regulator unit. This
effectively chops off the ripple to leave almost pure "regulated d.c." at a
steady voltage. So, to provide a suitable voltage for electronic circuits you
need a power supply which gives a "regulated d.c." output.

Transformer
What is a transformer?

A transformer is an electrical device that allows an AC input signal

(like audio) to produce a related AC output signal without the input and
output being physically connected together. This is accomplished by
having two (or more) coils of insulated wire wound around a magnetic
metal core. These wire coils are called windings. When an AC signal
passes through the input winding (the primary), a related AC signal
appears on the output winding (the secondary) via a phenomenon called
inductive coupling. By changing the number of wire turns in each
winding, transformers can be manufactured to have specific input and
output impedances. The ratio between the input and output impedances
provides a gain or loss of signal level as the signal passes through the
transformer. Transformers are bidirectional so that an input winding can
become the output winding and an output can become an input. Because
of a transformer's bidirectional nature, it can provide a gain in signal level
when used in one direction or a loss when used in reverse.

Transformers can be manufactured with multiple primary or

secondary windings. A winding can also have multiple connections or
"taps". Multiple taps offer different impedances along with different
gains/losses.
Picture of a Electrical Diagram of a Multiple Multiple
Transformer Transformer Windings Taps

A transformer is made up of two coils, each with a different number of

loops, linked by an iron core so the magnetic flux from one passes through
the other. When the flux generated by one coil changes (as it does
continually if the coil is connected to an AC power source), the flux
passing through the other will change, inducing a voltage in the second
coil. With AC power, the voltage induced in the second coil will also be
AC.

In a standard transformer, the two coils are usually wrapped around the
same iron core, ensuring that the magnetic flux is the same through both
coils. The coil that provides the flux (i.e., the coil connected to the AC
power source) is known as the primary coil, while the coil in which
voltage is induced is known as the secondary coil. If the primary coil sets
up a changing flux, the voltage in the secondary coil depends on the
number of turns in the secondary:

Similarly, the relationship for the primary coil is:

Combining these gives the relationship between the primary and

secondary voltage:

Energy (or, equivalently, power) has to be conserved, so:

If a transformer takes a high primary voltage and converts it to a low

secondary voltage, the current in the secondary will be higher than that in
 the primary to compensate (and vice versa). A transformer in which the
voltage is higher in the primary than the secondary (i.e., more turns in the
primary than the secondary) is known as a step-down transformer. A
transformer in which the secondary has more turns (and, therefore, higher
voltage) is known as a step-up transformer.

Power companies use step-up transformers to boost the voltage to

hundreds of kV before it is transmitted down a power line, reducing the
current and minimizing the power lost in transmission lines. Step-down
transformers are used at the other end, to decrease the voltage to the 120
or 240 V used in household circuits.

Transformers require a varying flux to work. They are therefore perfect for
AC power, but do not work at all for DC power, which would keep the
flux constant. The ease with which voltage and current can be tranformed
in an AC circuit is a large part of the reason AC power, rather than DC, is
distributed by the power companies.

Rectification
Rectification is the conversion of AC to DC. Semi-conductor diodes are
especially useful in the construction of rectifiers. The simplest type of
rectifier is a half-wave rectifier which allows only the current flowing in a
particular direction through. Any portion of the current flowing in the
opposite direction is cut-off and discarded.
Mathematically speaking, if some AC could be represented by a function
f(t), then the rectified output could be represented by

Half-wave rectification can easily be performed by using a single diode in

the circuit configuration shown in figure 4.
 ! "

In full-wave rectification, no part of the current is ``thrown away'' and any

current flowing opposite to the desired direction is somehow `re-routed' to
flow in the right way. If expressed mathematically where f(t) is the AC
input and fr(t) is the rectified output, this yields

fr(t) = |f(t)| where t is time.t is the time.

Figure 5: Input and output of a full-wave rectifier.

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Even with full wave rectification, the resultant output still retains that
`jagged' character. To get rectified output to `look' more like DC,
smoothing circuits must be employed. One of the simplest ways to smooth
rectified output is to put a reservoir capacitor in parallel with the load (see
figure 7).

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It's a simple concept, as the rectified EMF builds up to its peak value, the
capacitor gets charged. Once the AC moves past its peak, the capacitor
discharges through the load, keeping the current relatively steady (see
figure 8).
Capacitor

A capacitor is most simply defined as two conductors separated by a

dielectric. It is easier to grasp the significance of this definition by looking
at a commonly used model for a capacitor that is shown here.

A dielectric is a material that is a good insulator (incapable of passing

electrical current), but is capable of passing electrical fields of force.

Charged Capacitor
 A capacitor is said to be charged when there are more electrons on one
conductor plate than on the other.

Capacitor Charge and Discharge in an AC circuit

While the applied voltage is increasing during the positive half-cycle,

current flows through the circuit clockwise to charge the plates of the
capacitor.

While the applied voltage is decreasing during the positive half-cycle,

current flows through the circuit counter-clockwise to discharge the plates
of the capacitor.

While the applied voltage is increasing during the negative half-cycle,

current flows through the circuit counter-clockwise to charge the plates of
the capacitor with the opposite polarity.

While the applied voltage is decreasing during the negative half-cycle,

current flows through the circuit clockwise to discharge the plates of the
capacitor.
What does a capacitor look like?

1. "Plug-in" electrolytic used in power supplies where a high ripple-

current must be tolerated. The large size indicates either high voltage
rating or high capacitance value. This example is 47uF rated at 400 volts
dc.

2. Small size low cost electrolytic used where high ripple current is not
present. May be used for coupling or for decoupling but leakage current is
high and reliability is low.

3. Ceramic disc capacitor used where a low-cost, small, accurate

capacitance is required with good temperature stability.

4. Multilayer ceramic capacitor used where a high capacitance (up to 1uF)

is required in a small space. Low voltage only and poor temperature
stability but low impedance so very good for grounding low-voltage fast-
rise time pulses.

5. Polystyrene film capacitors used where a small capacitance is needed

with low tolerance spread (2% or better) and good temperature stability.
Drawbacks include relatively high inductance and cost and susceptibility
to cleaning solvents. Yellow example is of the "extended" type which is
better sealed against ingress of liquids. Polystyrene capacitors are most
often used in tuned circuits (oscillators and filters) where frequency
stability is important.
Resonance
Resonance is a condition that occurs when the capacitance and inductance
in a circuit are in balance. This occurs when the capacitive and inductive
reactances become equal at a particular frequency(called the resonant
frequency for that circuit). Capacitive reactance and inductive reactance
are by nature opposite to each other. Therefore when an equal amount of
each is present in the same circuit, they effectively cancel each other out.
In other words the only opposition that the resonant frequency encounters
in the circuit is purely resistive. The results of this state are either usually
high or low output current depending on its type. A series circuit at its
resonant frequency will result in a high current were as a parallel circuit
results in a low current.

These type of circuits are used in many applications were transmission and
reception circuits are used for example radios and televisions. They are
also used in filter circuits as they can be designed to be very sensitive to
certain frequencies. Such filter provides maximum output at resonant
frequency but minimizes the amount of output at any other frequency that
is above or below resonance.