PRECISION FULL-WAVE SIGNAL AMPLIFIER NEEDS NO DIODES
José M. Blanes, José A. Carrasco
EDN  (2005)
Ed. Electrónica Design News  ISSN:0012-7515  - Vol. SEPT. 1 pp. 81-81

Resumen:

Rectifier circuits based on semiconductor diodes typically handle voltage levels that greatly exceed the diodes' forward-voltage drops, which generally don't affect the accuracy of the rectification process. However, the rectified signal's accuracy suffers when the diode's voltage drop exceeds the applied voltage. Precision rectifier circuits combine diodes and operational amplifiers to eliminate the effects of diode voltage drops and enable high-accuracy, small-signal rectification. By taking advantage of modern operational amplifiers that can handle rail-to-rail inputs and outputs, the circuit in Figure 1 dispenses with diodes altogether, provides full-wave rectification, and operates from a single power supply.