View Item 

A Single Cell Maximum Power Point Tracking Converter without a Current Sensor for High Performance Vehicle Solar Arrays

View/Open
Access Status
Open access
Authors
Wolfs, Peter
Tang, L.
Date
2005
Type
Conference Paper
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract

A maximum power tracker is developed for a single high performance GaAs solar cell to reduce the impact of variations in cell illumination for highly curved arrays as required for vehicle applications. This solution also finds applications in concentrating photovoltaic systems where the incident energy may vary due to optical imperfections. On a curved array, each cell has a directly connected tracker that operates autonomously. An examination of the switching ripple performance of a large number of series connected asynchronous converters is made. The tracker uses a highly efficient 600 mW buck converter operating at 20 kHz with a synchronous rectifier. A dedicated MSP340 processor is capable of the total converter control task. Operating at 1.8 V the controller can be directly powered by the cell. A charge pump is used to develop gate drive voltages for the converter MOSFETs. A maximum power tracking algorithm based on observations of cell voltage and converter duty cycle is demonstrated. The load power may be maximized by maximizing the converter average output voltage. An interior voltage loop is used to control cell voltage and assists in securing a 1.5 mS response to illumination changes

Citation
Wolfs, Peter and Tang, L. 2005. A Single Cell Maximum Power Point Tracking Converter without a Current Sensor for High Performance Vehicle Solar Arrays, in Lai, J. (ed), Power Electronics Specialists Conference, 2005. PESC '05. IEEE 36th, Jun 12 2005, pp. 165-171. Recife, Brazil: IEEE.
Source Title
Power Electronics Specialists Conference
URI
Faculty
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
School of Engineering
Faculty of Science and Engineering
Remarks

Copyright © 2005 IEEE This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.

Collections