Title :
Minimization of solar cell hot-spots on GPS solar arrays using SABER modeling
Author :
Garcia, A., III ; Simburger, E. ; Lam, T. ; Malachesky, P.
Author_Institution :
Aerosp. Corp., Los Angeles, CA, USA
Abstract :
The GPS Block IIR solar array originally was designed with circuits consisting of 160 4×6 cm. silicon solar cells connected as 2 cells in parallel with 80 cells in series. Because each cell in the 2×80 cell circuits was connected in parallel there was a concern that severe hot spot heating of individual cells could occur under array shadowing conditions. An analog model was developed to simulate solar array operation in order to better the implications of this condition. A number of different circuit topologies were simulated in order to reduce the hot spot heating. Eliminating the parallel connections between each individual cell was found to be the best way to minimize cell heating without resorting to bypass diodes
Keywords :
Global Positioning System; digital simulation; elemental semiconductors; power engineering computing; semiconductor device models; semiconductor materials; silicon; simulation; solar cells; GPS Block IIR solar array; GPS solar arrays; SABER modeling; Si; Si solar cells; analog model; array shadowing; circuit topologies; series connection; solar cell hot-spots minimisation; Circuit simulation; Circuit topology; Diodes; Equations; Global Positioning System; Heating; Photovoltaic cells; Shadow mapping; Silicon; Temperature;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 1994., Conference Record of the Twenty Fourth. IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 1994, 1994 IEEE First World Conference on
Conference_Location :
Waikoloa, HI
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-1460-3
DOI :
10.1109/WCPEC.1994.520771
