Transistor as a Rectifier

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that transistors can be used as low-voltage drop rectifiers for AC signals, offering a more efficient alternative to silicon diodes in certain applications.

Contribution

It introduces transistor-based rectifier configurations that achieve significantly lower voltage drops compared to traditional silicon diodes.

Findings

Transistor rectifiers have a voltage drop of ~0.03V, much lower than silicon diodes.

Transistor rectifiers can rectify low current AC (~mA).

The paper presents half-wave and full-wave configurations with practical applications.

Abstract

Transistor is a three terminal semiconductor device normally used as an amplifier or as a switch. Here the alternating current (a.c) rectifying property of the transistor is considered. The ordinary silicon diode exhibits a voltage drop of ~0.6V across its terminals. In this article it is shown that the transistor can be used to build a diode or rectify low current a.c (~mA) with a voltage drop of ~0.03V. This voltage is ~20 times smaller than the silicon diode. This article gives the half-wave and full-wave transistor rectifier configurations along with some applications to justify their usefulness.