Voltage doubler
electronic circuit
A voltage doubler is an electronic circuit that 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 is a form of rectifier which takes an AC voltage as input and outputs a doubled DC voltage. The switching elements are simple diodes, 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. They frequently also require a switching element that can be controlled directly, such as a transistor, rather than relying on the voltage across the switch as in the simple AC-to-DC case.
Voltage doublers are a variety of voltage multiplier circuits. 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.
Voltage doubling rectifiers
Villard circuit
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.
“Voltage doubler” enters the record as electronic circuit. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Voltage, doubler and electronic can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Voltage doubler” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Voltage, doubler and electronic provides the most credible route into that argument.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q117903. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Voltage doubler”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Voltage doubler primary sources, Voltage doubler archive and Voltage research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Voltage doubler”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Voltage doubler” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.