Design and production of a 2.5 kWe insulated metal substrate-based densely packed CPV assembly
The original design of a new 144-cell concentrating photovoltaic assembly is presented in this paper. It is conceived to work under 500 suns and to generate about 2.5 kWe. An insulated metal substrate was selected as baseplate, in order to get the best compromise between costs and thermal performances. It is based on a 2mm thick aluminum plate, which is in charge of removing the heat as quick as possible. The copper pattern and thickness has been designed accordingly to the IPC Generic Standard on Printed Board Design and to the restrictions of fit a reflective 125x primary optics and a 4x secondary refractive optics. The original outline of the conductive copper layer has been developed to minimize Joule losses by reducing the number of interconnections between the cells in series. Multijunction solar cells and Schottky bypass diodes have been soldered onto the board as surface mounted components. All the fabrication processes are described. This board represents a novelty for the innovative pattern of the conductive layer, which can be easily adapted to be coupled with different optics geometries and to allocate a different number of cells. The use of an IMS as baseplate will give an experimental contribution to the debate about the exploitability of this kind of substrates in CPV. This board is being characterized indoor and outdoor: the results will be used to improve the design and the reliability of the future receivers.
Design of a 16-cell densely-packed receiver for high concentrating photovoltaic applications
A novel densely packed receiver for concentrating photovoltaics has been designed to fit a 125× primary and a 4× secondary reflective optics. It can allocate 16 1cm2-sized high concentrating solar cells and is expected to work at about 300 Wp, with a short-circuit current of 6.6 A and an open circuit voltage of 50.72 V. In the light of a preliminary thermal simulation, an aluminum-based insulated metal substrate has been use as baseplate. The original outline of the conductive copper layer has been developed to minimize the Joule losses, by reducing the number of interconnections between the cells in series. Slightly oversized Schottky diodes have been applied for bypassing purposes and the whole design fits the IPC-2221 requirements. A fullscale thermal simulation has been implemented to prove the reliability of an insulated metal substrate in CPV application, even if compared to the widely-used direct bonded copper board. The Joule heating phenomenon has been analytically calculated first, to understand the effect on the electrical power output, and then simulate, to predict the consequences on the thermal management of the board. The outcomes of the present research will be used to optimize the design of a novel actively cooled 144-cell receiver for high concentrating photovoltaic applications. © 2014 The Authors.