Full Wave Rectifier Peak
The use of Operational
amplifiers can improve the performance of a wide variety of signal processing circuits. In rectifier circuits, the voltage drop that occurs with an ordinary semiconductor rectifier can be eliminated to give precision rectification.
The input voltage Vin is applied to one terminal of the summing amplifier along with resistor R3 and to the input of the precision rectifier. The output of precision rectifier is applied to another terminal of summing amplifier. The precision half-wave rectifier circuit uses an inverting amplifier configuration.
The voltage at terminal A is Va = +Vin. The output from the summing
circuit with R3=R4=R5 is Vo = – (Va+Vb). Hence Vo = -(Vin – 2Vin) = +Vin. So during the negative half cycle of the input, the Op-Amp output terminal goes positive, causing D2 to be reverse biased. Without D1 in the circuit, the Op-Amp output would be saturated in the positive direction. However, the positive voltage at the Op-Amp output forward biases the D1. This tends to pull the Op-Amp inverting terminal in a positive direction. But, such a move would cause the Op-Amp output to go negative. So, the output settles at the voltage close to ground level. So to be clear, the negative half-cycle is clipped off. That is Vb=0 and Va = -Vin. Totally the Vo will be Vo = -(-Vin+0) = +Vin.