Power diodes can be used individually as above or connected together to produce a variety of rectifier circuits such as “Half-Wave”, “Full-Wave” or as “Bridge Rectifiers”. Each type of rectifier circuit can be classed as either uncontrolled, half-controlled or fully controlled where an uncontrolled rectifier uses only power diodes, a fully controlled rectifier uses thyristors (SCRs) and a half controlled rectifier is a mixture of both diodes and thyristors.

The most commonly used individual power diode for basic electronics applications is the general purpose 1N400x Series Glass Passivated type rectifying diode with standard ratings of continuous forward rectified