Hi,
Thanks Sarma, a very informative site for electronic components.
The following are some of the major differences between a two diode full wave rectifier (FW2) and a bridge rectifer (FWb):
1. An FW2 needs a center tapped transformer, so that, for a given output voltage, the number of secondary windings are double that for FWb.
2. Since the same secondary winding carries current during both the half cycles in an FWb, the power dissipated in the single winding is double that of each half winding used for FW2. So, the advantage of reduced tranformer size due to the need for only half the no of secondary turns for FWb is partially offset by the necessity to use slightly thicker secondary turns to carry higher average current.
3. Since in an FW2, the noncoducting winding applies a reverse voltage to the nonconducting diode during each half cycle, the Repetitive Peak Reverse Voltage specification of the diodes used in FW2 should be double that of diodes used in FWb.
4.In FWb, DC output is reduced due to two diode drops, where as in FW2, you have only one diode drop.
Regards,
Laktronics