Rectifier
A rectifier, also referred to as AC / DC converter, is a converter for supplying a load that needs to be supplied by a voltage or direct current from an AC source. The power supply is, most of the time, a voltage generator. ▪ Uncontrolled rectifiers, mainly made from diodes, are used when the output voltage does not need to be adjusted. ▪ Controlled rectifiers whose variable output voltage may include thyristors or sets of diodes and thyristors. Due to their high mass power these rectifiers are always used in high power and when it is necessary to regulate or to vary the electrical quantities at the output. In low and medium power, the thyristor controlled rectifiers are obsolescent and are advantageously replaced by the "cascade" of a controlled or uncontrolled rectifier and of a DC-DC converter.