Design and Qualification Tests of the Alsat-1 High Efficiency Solar Panels

Abstract

Since the commissioning of the manufacture facility and qualification of the processes in 2001, Alsat-1 solar panels were the first ones ever to be made and tested in house by SSTL. The solar panels used lightweight solar panel substrates of aluminium honeycomb with aluminium face skins. The front face skin has a polyimide insulation layer ready for the electrical lay down of the solar cells.

The panel cell interconnections, bus barring and wiring are fully welded for high reliability. All stages of manufacture are routinely checked for quality assurance. Final acceptance performance testing was performed in Farnborough. SSTL used an ultrasonic welding technique for the connection of gold coated interconnects to the front bus bar of the cell. The cells are then glassed using space qualified glass, followed by retesting and grouping in the appropriate current class.

This paper describes the design procedures for the Alsat-1 body mounted solar panels manufactured, for the first time, by SSTL. Because of the power requirements both for the payload and the bus, the solar panels were equipped with high efficiency single junction GaAs solar cells mounted on aluminium substrates for a more efficient radiation shielding for the payload.