Development or research of solar cells and development of measuring equipment
frequently requires a solar simulator. With solar based research a proper solar
simulator is inevitable, but also quite large and costly. Every so often a smaller
and therefore cheaper solar simulator would be convenient, even if it would not
satisfy all of the requirements of standard solar simulators.
In this thesis we constructed a pocket sized, portable, battery powered solar
simulator using a light emitting diode. Its purpose will be testing of photosensitive
surfaces smaller than 1 cm^2. The objective is to make a simulator which
will fall in the class C standards, however ignoring the spectral matching requirement.
Herewith we must achieve a spectral non uniformity of less than 10 % and
temporal instability of less than 10 %.
The development process was divided into two parts. In the first part we
tackled the optical requirement. Based on light uniformity measurements of a
selection of handheld LED lights, we chose a pocket light upon which the new
solar simulator will be based. In the second part of development, we designed and
manufactured an improved control circuit for the selected light. Furthermore, we
constructed an improved casing and classified the product.
The developed solar simulator can be classified into class UCU. Finally, all
possible improvements are summarized and an improved control circuit is proposed,
which may be able to improve the solar simulator enough to satisfy the
UBC class of solar simulators.
|
