Large- and Small-Area Sunlight — Delivered Indoors
Proven, Scalable Solar Simulation
Angstrom Designs’ products and services are trusted by
Proven LED Solar Simulation For All Applications
pLEDss, the programmable LED solar simulator, is a flexible, powerful, and efficient test system for illuminating current and future space-grade solar cells, coupons and panels. pLEDss has enough power to test AM0 space cells and is capable on cell technologies up to 6 junctions. With proven results from single cells up to panels larger than a few square meters, and with best in class performance, pLEDss can handle any space or terrestrial solar simulation need.
Large Panel Capable
Proven capability, scaling to areas over several square meters. Click here to learn more.
- Large area testing of circuits up to multiple square meters, not just large format solar cells
- Standard support frames from small areas to any size, and custom sizing too
- Better than Class AAA for every junction, even for very large areas
- Excellent spatial non-uniformity at any area, including > 1 sq. meter
- Trusted to build huge systems, like NASAs 3.1 sq. meter Artemis PPE simulator
- Small Frames are available too, standard and custom
- Use the same spectrum for large and small area testing
- Fully automated systems can be controlled by a manufacturing computer
Multi-Junction Capable
- Designed for multi-junction solar cells
- Measure and pass industry standard specifications for every junction
- Calibration of any cell location to isoypes
- Optional Fully automated calibration verification
- Patented, Junction Current Match (JCM) calibration further improves performance
Spectral and Spatial Control
- Fully programmable spectrum and irradiance with Angstrom Designs software
- Broad Irradiance control
- Change irradiance intensity with software - No attenuators
- Full control of spectrum
- Change spectrum with software - No filters
- Control of spatial illumination
- Low maintenance - No replacing lamps or filters
- Enable individual biasing of each junction of each cell in an assembled circuit
Application Flexibility
- All Sized Cells and Panels:
- From Cost Effective Small-Area, Single LED Head Systems for Single Cell Illumination
- To Efficient Medium-Area Testers for Coupons and Small Panels that have dozens of LED Heads
- To Large-Area Systems with hundreds of LED Heads for Arbitrarily Huge Panels
- Cells of All Technology Types:
- III-V Multi-junction Cells from 1 to 6 Junctions
- Silicon Cells
- Thin Film Cells, including Perovskite, CIGS, and CdTe
- Tandem and Triple Junction Cells from Silicon and Perovskite
Solar Simulation Verified by NASA
We meet NASAs most demanding needs for large panel test. Let's talk about your requirements.
Highly Configurable
- Pulsed Illumination
- Pulses from 250ms to greater than 60sec
- Spectral and Irradiance Stability over each pulse and between all pulses
- Continuous Illumination
- Low-cost air-cooled heads for <3 suns AM0
- Water-cooled heads for >3 suns AM0
- Horizontal or Vertical Beam Orientation
- Scale to any size, from small cells to large panels by adding more LED heads
- Standard Illumination from 2.0 Suns down to 0.05 Suns (specifications slightly reduced above 1.0 Suns)
- Full Illumination Control: Irradiance, Spectrum, and Spatial Uniformity
- Best in Class performance for all junctions, even in large area systems
Reduce Manufacturing Costs
Reduce Your Solar Cell Manufacturing Costs Through Better Testing Capabilities
- Small-Area, Cost Effective Solar Simulation
- Large-Area Testing to Any Size, No Matter How Large
- Fully Automated Systems controlled by your Manufacturing Control System for High-Volume Production
- Proven, Automated 24/7 Test Capability
- Low Maintenance cost through long-life, >10,000 hour light sources
- Full solar cell and panel electrical characterization—including IV curves, Isc, Voc, Imp, Vmp, FF
- Superior stability and repeatability for all junctions
- Custom LED Drive Technology enabled continuous current control of LEDs, <0.1% light stability at low cost
Proven PV Space Heritage
Hundreds of pLEDss Heads have tested Thousands of Solar Cells and Panels
- AM0 Space Solar Simulation Is Much Harder Than AM1.5 Terrestrial:
- Space requires greater a greater spectral range
- AM0 requires almost double the irradiance of AM1.5
- Space requires much higher current matching than Class A Spectral Match provides
- Simulators adapted from terrestrial use are not sufficient for space
- Many adapted terrestrial simulators have:
- Low power, even when claiming "AM0 Boosted Power"
- Low Ultraviolet, even when claiming "AM0 Boosted UV"
- Low Infrared, even when claiming "AM0 Boosted IR"
- No ability to calibrate to isotype current matching
- Lower accuracy than needed or advertised
- Angstrom Designs has proven space heritage, with hundreds of pLEDss heads in use
- We co-invented LED solar simulation for Space with NASA
- We have tested thousands of space cells and panels
- We understand the unique challenges of space cells: Ge substrates, IMM, multi-junction, and more
- Terrestrial cell suppliers can benefit from the added capability of pLEDss technology
Space Simulator Comparison
| pLEDss - LED | Modified Terrestrial LED | Pulsed Xenon | Continuous Lamp | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large panel capable | yes | no | yes | no |
| Multi-junction capable | yes | no | yes | yes |
| Spectral & Spatial control | yes | no | no | no |
| Many applications | yes | no | limited | no |
| Flexible test options | yes | no | no | no |
| Reduced manufacturing costs | yes | limited | limited | limited |
| Photovoltaic space heritage | yes | no | yes | yes |