Half-Wave Rectifier Output
Half-wave (no filter)
Enter the AC input (RMS), frequency and diode drop; peak, DC, RMS and ripple appear live.
Output
How to use this calculator
A half-wave rectifier conducts on only one half of each AC cycle. The peak is Vp = √2·Vrms, the DC (average) output is Vdc = Vp/π, and the peak-to-peak ripple with no filter is Vpp = 2·Vp. Enter the AC RMS voltage, frequency and diode drop and every value updates live.
What it means in a real circuit
For a 12 V RMS input the peak is ~17 V and the DC output is only ~5.4 V (17/π) — half-wave is inefficient and very "lumpy," so it's almost always followed by a capacitor filter. The RMS value shown as "real" accounts for the missing half-cycles and is what a true-RMS meter would read. Use this for the first stage of a power supply, or where a very low-power, cheap supply is acceptable and the load tolerates high ripple.