Bridge Rectifier

A Bridge rectifier is simply a collection of diodes arranged in a specific manner and can be either made from individual diodes or contained in one package with 4 leads. 2 input leads and 2 output leads [one + and one -]. The output from a bridge rectifier is a full wave output as opposed to the half wave output from a single diode. The input is normally a sinewave but can be anything from a sine wave to a pulsed or straight DC voltage.

In a schematic it looks like this: