Advanced solar tile design and performance

Unlike typical solar arrays whereby each string is composed of solar cells with discrete coverslides and interconnects, a solar tile contains a complete string, or multiple strings, under a single coverslide with coplanar contact solar cells mounted to and interconnected with Kapton^®-copper flexible circuitry. Advance fabrication processes include robotic solar cell placement, vapor-phase batch soldering, and laser formed circuit vias. This design and manufacturing approach increases cell packing factor, improves plasma charge tolerance, reduces fabrication variability, simplifies tooling, and allows creation of compact strings for improved array shadow performance. Besides typical solar array applications, the solar tile approach is well suited for high voltage applications and those requiring high magnetic cleanliness. Full scale, 11"×14", electrical tiles have be fabricated with both coplanar dual-junction and triple-junction solar cells.