Arcing mitigation and predictions for high voltage solar arrays. Technical report

TL;DRAbstract

Future solar arrays are being designed for much higher voltages in order to meet high power demands at low currents. Unfortunately, negatively biased high voltage solar cells have been observed to arc when exposed to the low earth orbit plasma environment. Analytical and numerical models of this arcing phenomenon on conventional solar cells have been developed which show excellent agreement with experimental data. With an understanding of a mechanism for arcing, it is possible to determine methods of arc rate mitigation and to predict arc rates for experiments. Of the various arc rate mitigation methods examined in this research, decreasing the ratio of coverglass/adhesive dielectric constants and overhanging the coverglass show the most promise in reducing or even eliminating arcing. In addition, arcing rates were predicted for the high voltage biased arrays of the Air Force`s Photovoltaic Array Space Power Plus Diagnostics experiment (PASP Plus). These predictions provide both expect

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