Favorite precision rectifier

Jun 18, 2009 47 Replies

What's your favorite full wave precision rectifier circuit?



I need something good for sines and triangles of a volt or so, up to 100kHz or so. I'm looking at this

formatting link
but it has an ugly ~1us propagation delay, resulting in a 200-400mV step at zero crossing. Eww.



Tim


Deep Friar: a very philosophical monk. Website: http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms

Hz

ecision_FWR.gif

at

isn't this the standard from some AD appnote:

formatting link

-Lasse

My favorite:

formatting link

I've been using it since the mid '80's, first for a 400KHz application, back when OpAmp GBW wasn't nearly as good as they are now.

...Jim Thompson

| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 | Isn\'t the definition of "totalitarian" when the government owns significant manufacturing; and controls the major media outlets?

OK, all analog: use a comparator to sense the sign of the input, and then switch a +1/-1 gain stage.

John

I usually use a Gilbert cell driven by a comparator.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal ElectroOptical Innovations 55 Orchard Rd Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 845-480-2058 hobbs at electrooptical dot net http://electrooptical.net

Uselessly overcomplicated.

Has a certain elegance about it though. Breaking it down to its components, you have a stacked differential amplifier (the mixer) and a high gain differential amplifier (the comparator), which should have a differential output to drive the mixer to saturation (or use diode steering). But that's none other than taking signal x, amplifying the piss out of it to get

100,000x clamped to the supply rails, which is essentially the sign function (in this case, +1 if x > epsilon, -1 if x < epsilon, x/epsilon if |x| < espilon). So it generates sign(x) * x, which is another way of writing |x|. Neato.

Tim

Deep Friar: a very philosophical monk. Website: http://webpages.charter.net/dawill/tmoranwms

Often the only way when you have 500MHz signals to deal with.

...Jim Thompson

| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 | Isn\'t the definition of "totalitarian" when the government owns significant manufacturing; and controls the major media outlets?

If you're doing a discrete (not ICs) design, it's arguably a lot simpler than building the equivalent op-amp-style circuit... we're talking, what, no more than a dozen transistors here (current sources included), right?

I sense a "fewest number of transistors absolute value circuit" design challenge coming on. :-)

than

o more

+10V ! [R]10K ! +-------Vout !/ AC IN------! !\\e 2N3904 ! [R]10K ! -10V

What do I win?

That ought to produce some real crap designs ;-)

...Jim Thompson

| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 | Isn\'t the definition of "totalitarian" when the government owns significant manufacturing; and controls the major media outlets?

Hz

ecision_FWR.gif

at

H&H AoE. not sure the chapter or page. You add the inverse to the half wave rectified signal. (or something like that) through an opamp. I'm pretty sure they didn't invent it but that's where I saw it first.

George H.

kHz

at

=A0 =A0 ...Jim Thompson

=A0 | =A0 =A0mens =A0 =A0 |

=A0 | =A0 =A0 et =A0 =A0 =A0|

=A0|

=A0 =A0 =A0 |

Hmm, I haven't seen that before. I'll give it a whirl. Thanks, George H.

0kHz

p at

Phil, Do you 'roll your own' Gilbert cell?.

Tim, I'm using an AD multiplier chip, part number 'unsure' (sorry I'm at home with dial-up and it's too painful to go searching the web.) That's claimed to be good up to 10MHz. It works great for detecting noise up to 100kHz. (and beyond)

George H.

It's about 25 cents worth of parts, smaller than a dime, and works great. Useless is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal ElectroOptical Innovations 55 Orchard Rd Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 845-480-2058 hobbs at electrooptical dot net http://electrooptical.net

Generally I use an array, e.g. an MC1496.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal ElectroOptical Innovations 55 Orchard Rd Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 845-480-2058 hobbs at electrooptical dot net http://electrooptical.net

Hz

ecision_FWR.gif

at

Hello Tim,

What relative input range is required and how good it must be (linearity, offset drift, etc)?

The larger the relative input range, the larger the gain must be in case of a feedback approach.

Best regards,

Wim PA3DJS

formatting link
remove first three letters of alphabet in the PM

An MC1496 is NOT an array... it's the real deal ;-)

...Jim Thompson

| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 | Isn\'t the definition of "totalitarian" when the government owns significant manufacturing; and controls the major media outlets?

Like-a dis...

formatting link

...Jim Thompson

| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC\'s and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 | Isn\'t the definition of "totalitarian" when the government owns significant manufacturing; and controls the major media outlets?

100kHz

tep at

t -

Cool, I use the AD630 as a 'lockin' chip. Someone told me that was what I should use and I never bothered lokking for other demodulators. So the MC1496 is 150 times faster and 1/20 the cost. What's the down side? The carrier feed through numbers look a bit scary. 20 - 200 mV with a sqaure wave if the offset isn't adjusted.

George H.

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required