Term of the Moment
burner email
Definition: rectifier
An electrical circuit used to convert AC into DC current. A rectifier is a diode that causes the current to flow in only one direction. The output of the rectifier is essentially half-AC current, which is then filtered into DC. Contrast with inverter. See diode.
The Switching Power Supply
This is a hypothetical example of a switching power supply that turns 120v AC into 9v DC. The rectifier creates the DC current that becomes square waves for the pulse transformer. For more details on this type of power supply, see transformer.