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Isn't there a way to create a rectifier with just three diodes? I remember having come up with a way to make one once, but there must have been something wrong with it (I know nothing about electronics). Now I can't remember how it was, or maybe it had 4 and just looked slightly different from the typical one.

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As a matter of fact you can do it with just one... That would be a half wave rectifier (not that good, you miss half the cycle). You can also do full wave with just two, but you need a center tap on your transformer. I remember finding both of these in early guitar tube amplifiers schematics (those early ones used vacuum tubes for everything: rectification, pre-amp & power).

Yes, there is. 3 diodes and 3 capacitors. But the catch is that the output is going to be 930 Vcc instead of just 310 Vcc. It's called Vcc multiplier and you can easily reach thousands of volts this way - that's how the police teasers work, they have a small DC to AC converter and then use this kind of multiplier to shock people by driving 25K Vcc, but the intensity is around 10 nA (if it would be 1 mA the teaser would kill instantly).

https://www.electronicshub.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Vo...

Ah, totally forgot about these. My father saw them extensively in x-ray generators (which may reach over 100KV for some applications...)

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