Half oscillation
As a half-wave , colloquially half wave is called that part of a sinusoidal vibration containing a sign change. A half oscillation is therefore limited by the periodically occurring zero crossings . One can differentiate between positive and negative semi-oscillations. The duration is equal to half the period duration . The term is mainly used in electrical engineering for alternating quantities in connection with rectifiers , since polarity-sensitive (i.e. non-linear) components such as diodes react differently to the two half- oscillations .
The term wave actually implies, in addition to time dependence, also a position dependence; although this is not given here, the jargon still speaks of half-wave .
receipt
Joachim Specovius, Basic Course Power Electronics : Components, Circuits and Systems , Vieweg + Teubner, Wiesbaden 2009