
A voltage doubler is an electronic circuit which charges capacitors from the input voltage and switches these charges in such a way that, in the ideal case, exactly twice the voltage is produced at the output as at its input. The simplest of these circuits are a form of rectifier which take an AC voltage
Alternating current
Alternating current is an electric current which periodically reverses direction, in contrast to direct current which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in which electric power is delivered to businesses and residences, and it is the form of electrical energy that consu…
How does a voltage doubler work?
Voltage doubler. Jump to navigation Jump to search. A voltage doubler is an electronic circuit which charges capacitors from the input voltage and switches these charges in such a way that, in the ideal case, exactly twice the voltage is produced at the output as at its input.
What are the different types of voltage doublers?
In some applications, heavy and expensive step-up transformers can be replaced by voltage doublers. There are two main types of voltage doublers: half wave voltage doublers and full wave voltage doublers. The figure below shows a simple DC voltage doubler circuit.
What is the output voltage of a doubler diode?
D1 conducts waveform v (1) (figure below ), charging C1 to the peak of the sine wave riding on 5 V DC (figure below v (2)). Waveform v (2) is the output of the doubler, which stabilizes at 10 V (8.6 V with diode drops) after a few cycles of sine wave input.
Who invented the voltage doubler circuit?
A rudimentary voltage doubler, invented by Paul Ulrich Villard (1860-1934). There are many doubler circuit variations, but all voltage doublers and multipliers have similar operating principles. The switched-capacitor voltage doubler runs from a dc input. Two capacitors charge to the input voltage while in parallel.

What is the function of voltage doubler?
A voltage doubler circuit outputs a DC voltage that is double the peak value of the AC input voltage, without using a transformer. There are many electrical design situations where an AC voltage signal is available (or can be created), but a larger DC voltage is needed for the circuit.
What are the advantages of using the voltage doubler?
Advantages of Voltage DoublerIt eliminates the use of a high voltage transformer. As it changes a low voltage to high at a low rate.Voltage multiplication can be greatly increased by cascading such circuits.
Where are voltage multipliers used?
Application of Voltage MultiplierCathode ray tubes.Cathode ray tubes in oscilloscope, Television receivers, Computer display.X-Ray systems.Lasers.Ion pumps.Copy machines.Electrostatic systems.Photomultiplier tubes.More items...•
How do you increase voltage in a circuit?
To increase the voltage, we connect the AC voltages in series to get a higher output voltage. If the frequency of all the voltages are the same, the magnitude of the voltages simply add. The voltages will just add, so the total voltage will be 28Vac at 60Hz.
What is rectifier used for?
A rectifier is used for powering appliances Using a rectifier in the power supply helps in converting AC to DC power supply. Bridge rectifiers are widely used for large appliances, where they are capable of converting high AC voltage to low DC voltage.
How do voltage boosters work?
The boost converter is used to "step-up" an input voltage to some higher level, required by a load. This unique capability is achieved by storing energy in an inductor and releasing it to the load at a higher voltage.
What is voltage doubler and Tripler?
The full-wave double is a superior circuit as a doubler. A tripler is a half-wave doubler and a conventional rectifier stage (peak detector). A quadrupler is a pair of half-wave doublers. A long string of half-wave doublers is known as a Cockcroft-Walton multiplier.
What is a way to increase the resistance in a circuit?
length - longer wires have greater resistance. thickness - smaller diameter wires have greater resistance. temperature - heating a wire increases its resistance.
What is voltage doubler?
A voltage doubler is an electronic circuit which charges capacitors from the input voltage and switches these charges in such a way that, in the ideal case, exactly twice the voltage is produced at the output as at its input.
Who invented the voltage quadrupler?
Figure 3. Voltage quadrupler – two Greinacher cells of opposite polarities. This circuit was first invented by Heinrich Greinacher in 1913 (published 1914) to provide the 200–300 V he needed for his newly invented ionometer, the 110 V AC supplied by the Zurich power stations of the time being insufficient.
What is a Delon circuit?
The Delon circuit uses a bridge topology for voltage doubling; consequently it is also called a full-wave voltage doubler. This form of circuit was, at one time, commonly found in cathode ray tube television sets where it was used to provide an extra high tension (EHT) supply.
How are switching elements driven?
The switching elements are simple diodes and they are driven to switch state merely by the alternating voltage of the input. DC-to-DC voltage doublers cannot switch in this way and require a driving circuit to control the switching.
What is Dickson multiplier?
The Dickson multiplier normally requires that alternate cells are driven from clock pulses of opposite phase. However, since a voltage doubler, shown in figure 7, requires only one stage of multiplication only one clock signal is required.
Can a voltage doubler be viewed as a single stage?
Many, but not all, voltage doubler circuits can be viewed as a single stage of a higher order multiplier: cascading identical stages together achieves a greater voltage multiplication.
What is a DC multiplier?
Definition: A multiplier circuit that generates a dc output voltage having amplitude twice the maximum amplitude of the ac input supply voltage is known as Voltage Doubler. The circuit shows its necessity in all such applications where a high level of voltage is required when the input source is of low amplitude.
What happens when the positive half of the input signal is applied?
When positive half of the input signal is applied, diode D 1 gets forward biased. Due to this, it behaves as a short circuit and current flows through the diode. This current charges the capacitor C 1 up to the peak value of the applied input signal.
Who invented the voltage doubler?
A rudimentary voltage doubler, invented by Paul Ulrich Villard (1860-1934). There are many doubler circuit variations, but all voltage doublers and multipliers have similar operating principles. The switched-capacitor voltage doubler runs from a dc input. Two capacitors charge to the input voltage while in parallel.
What is a Greinacher voltage doubler?
Greinacher voltage doubler, also known as a half-wave doubler, preserves peak voltage at the output with substantially reduced ripple.
Why do diodes and capacitors have to have reverse breakdown ratings?
But the diodes and capacitors must have adequate reverse-breakdown ratings of twice peak voltage because of the high voltages produced in multi-stage equipment.
What is the purpose of diodes and capacitors?
Diodes and capacitors are used in concert to form voltage multipliers. These circuits are capable of multiplying the voltage by a factor of four or more to produce theoretically any voltage, well into the kilovolt range.
Why do cascaded multipliers need ladder configuration?
Cascaded multiplier circuits should be built in a ladder configuration so the progressively increasing voltage potential cannot arc across individual lower-potential sections. That way, the entire ladder is not destroyed by a single shorted diode or capacitor.
What is a Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier?
The Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier is one type among many charge pumps, named for the characteristic manner in which they force an electrical charge along a pipe-like series of capacitors, each of which stores the charge until the polarity reverses, whereupon they discharge.
Why are stepped voltages used in particle accelerators?
Because stepped voltages are available, this source has been used in particle accelerators and for biasing in photomultiplier tubes. They are used to power such diverse equipment as particle accelerators, X-ray machines, cathode-ray tube TVs, magnetrons in microwave ovens, photocopiers, and bug zappers.
What is voltage doubler?
A voltage doubler application is a DC power supply capable of using either a 240 VAC or 120 VAC source. The supply uses a switch selected full-wave bridge to produce about 300 VDC from a 240 VAC source. The 120 V position of the switch rewires the bridge as a doubler producing about 300 VDC from the 120 VAC. In both cases, 300 VDC is produced. This is the input to a switching regulator producing lower voltages for powering, say, a personal computer.
How many times can a voltage multiplier be?
A voltage multiplier is a specialized rectifier circuit producing an output which is theoretically an integer times the AC peak input, for example, 2, 3, or 4 times the AC peak input. Thus, it is possible to get 200 VDC from a 100 Vpeak AC source using a doubler, 400 VDC from a quadrupler. Any load in a practical circuit will lower these voltages.

What Is A Voltage Doubler?
Types of Voltage Doubler
- Half Wave Voltage Doubler
The figure below shows a simple DC voltage doubler circuit. Here, it is clear that both the capacitors and the diodes operate together to create the double voltage output. Now, we can go through the working of the half-wave DC voltage doubler. All over the positive half cycle of the A… - Full Wave Voltage Doubler
In the full-wave voltage doubler, the components are the same as that of half-wave voltage doubler. But difference is in the circuit, as shown below. In this doubler, right through the positive cycle of input AC voltage, the first diode (D1) is in the conducting state. That is a forward biased …
Advantages of Voltage Doubler
- The advantages of voltage doublers include: 1. Can replace the expensive and heavy transformers. 2. Negative voltage can also be created by reversing the polarity of the connected diodes and capacitors. 3. Can increase the voltage multiplication factor by cascading the similar voltage multipliers.
Application of Voltage Doubler
- The applications of voltage doublers include: 1. Ion pumps 2. Television CRT 3. X-Ray systems 4. Copy machine 5. Radar equipment 6. Travelling wave tubes etc
Overview
A voltage doubler is an electronic circuit which charges capacitors from the input voltage and switches these charges in such a way that, in the ideal case, exactly twice the voltage is produced at the output as at its input.
The simplest of these circuits are a form of rectifier which take an AC voltage as input and outputs a doubled DC voltage. The switching elements are simple diodes and they are driven to switch s…
Voltage doubling rectifiers
The Villard circuit, conceived by Paul Ulrich Villard, consists simply of a capacitor and a diode. While it has the great benefit of simplicity, its output has very poor ripple characteristics. Essentially, the circuit is a diode clamp circuit. The capacitor is charged on the negative half cycles to the peak AC voltage (Vpk). The output is the superposition of the input AC waveform and the stead…
Switched capacitor circuits
It is possible to use the simple diode-capacitor circuits described above to double the voltage of a DC source by preceding the voltage doubler with a chopper circuit. In effect, this converts the DC to AC before application to the voltage doubler. More efficient circuits can be built by driving the switching devices from an external clock so that both functions, the chopping and multip…
See also
• Boost converter
• Buck-boost converter
• DC to DC converter
• Flyback converter
Bibliography
• Ahmed, Syed Imran Pipelined ADC Design and Enhancement Techniques, Springer, 2010 ISBN 90-481-8651-X.
• Bassett, R. J.; Taylor, P. D. (2003), "17. Power Semiconductor Devices", Electrical Engineer's Reference Book, Newnes, pp. 17/1–17/37, ISBN 0-7506-4637-3
• Campardo, Giovanni; Micheloni, Rino; Novosel, David VLSI-design of Non-volatile Memories, Springer, 2005 ISBN 3-540-20198-X.
Primary sources
1. ^ Villard, P. (1901), "Transformateur à haut voltage. A survolteur cathodique" [High-voltage transformer. Cathodic voltage booster], Journal de Physique Théorique et Appliquée, 4th series (in French), 10: 28–32, doi:10.1051/jphystap:019010010002801. Villard's voltage booster appears in Fig. 1 on p. 31.
2. ^ Greinacher, H. (1914), "Das Ionometer und seine Verwendung zur Messung von Radium- und Röntgenstrahlen" [The ionometer and its application to the measurement of radi…
1. ^ Villard, P. (1901), "Transformateur à haut voltage. A survolteur cathodique" [High-voltage transformer. Cathodic voltage booster], Journal de Physique Théorique et Appliquée, 4th series (in French), 10: 28–32, doi:10.1051/jphystap:019010010002801. Villard's voltage booster appears in Fig. 1 on p. 31.
2. ^ Greinacher, H. (1914), "Das Ionometer und seine Verwendung zur Messung von Radium- und Röntgenstrahlen" [The ionometer and its application to the measurement of radium …