Solid-state light simulator with current-mode control

Abstract

This paper presents an efficient, low-cost, versatile LED-based light simulator intended to produce a well-characterized spectrum for tests of solar cells and other photosensitive devices.Three major design aspects are addressed: LED spectra, power converters for LED drive, and control. Visible light emulating a standard solar spectrum is used as a test application using six LED colors. The number of LEDs and their placement for uniformity are addressed. Independent control of the six colors can simulate a range of different light sources and solar spectra. Boost converters under current-mode control are used to achieve reproducible LED brightness through adjustable currents, or equivalent radiant flux commands. Spectral uniformity tests verify that the system achieves standard uniformity requirements over an area of 100mm×100mm in simulations, and 100mm×50mm in experiments. The system is much less costly than available spectral test equipment. Current-mode controllers successfully maintain the desired illumination commands with low steady-state error and ripple, at converter efficiencies exceeding 93%.

Compact Light-Emitting Diode-Based AAA Class Solar Simulator: Design and Application Peculiarities

“…However, for hybrid LED-halogen solar simulators, A class spectral distribution matching can be achieved only with supplemental near-infrared LEDs [11]. Another approach for LED-based solar simulators is to cover only visible part of spectrum with acceptable light intensity and nonuniformity [12], [13]. The secondary optics was applied to increase the power density and the uniformity of light flux to meet the requirement: An LED-based large area solar simulator with 5-m long mirror waveguides was presented in [14].…”

A low cost solar array simulator using halogen tungsten bulb with temperature control capability

“…It has much higher irradiance than LED, but much hotter− due to the tungsten heating element. It has been used in several low cost SAS, for example [5][6][7]. Despite its effectiveness, there appears lack of effort on how to reduce the temperature of the module when subjected to this type of bulbs.…”

Optimum Monochromatic Wavelengths for Solar Panel Testing and Conversion of Parameters to STC

“…Results were improved in array area and test plane area in subsequent experiments including all the available LED simulation modes i.e., continuous, flash and pulse [18][19][20][21][22]. Our experiment focused on two monocrystalline solar panels, a small test solar panel of 0.18W and a commercially used 20W solar panel.…”