The solar cell experiment of the first Brazilian complete space mission satellite

The first satellite of the Brazilian Full Space-Mission will host a solar cell experiment (SCE) whose objective is to qualify the solar cells developed at the University of Sao Paulo. The solar cell array consists of six p-n junction single-crystal silicon, 10-Ω-cm, n-type phosphorus-doped substrate, 2×2 cm² area cells. The development of the SCE is described together with the mathematical procedures used for the determination of the I-V curve output parameters. This novel method is based on the numerical fit of the voltage versus temperatures curve of the SCE cells as telemetered by the satellite. A laboratory simulation of the electrical behavior of the SCE has shown that the analytical method is excellent for the interpretation of the telemetered SCE signal. The parameters obtained from the V-T curves match satisfactorily the I-V curve parameters obtained by direct measurements. The results demonstrate that a low-cost experiment which uses passive electric circuits can be used to obtain the complete I-V solar cell curves during the satellite mission lifetime