Study on volt-ampere characteristics of solar array arcs in LEO spacecraft

作     者：Liying ZHU Zhigang LIU Xiaofeng ZHANG Chao WANG Xiaofei LI 朱立颖;刘治钢;张晓峰;王超;李小飞;赵冰欣

作者机构：Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering CAST 

出 版 物：《Plasma Science and Technology》 (等离子体科学和技术（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2019年第21卷第2期

页      面：39-46页

核心收录：

学科分类：08[工学] 0825[工学-航空宇航科学与技术] 

基　　金：supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51407008) 

主　　题：primary arc secondary arc solar array 

摘      要：The primary and secondary arcs volt-ampere characteristics of low earth orbit solar arrays are studied in this research. Using three gallium-arsenide solar cell samples, the gap lengths of the solar cell are set to 1, 2, and 3 mm. First, the primary arc voltage characteristics of a solar array are analyzed. It is found that two steps are involved in the primary arc voltages, which are 116 and 22 V according to our experiment and are independent of the electrostatic discharge current and the gap lengths. By comparing with the arc pattern, we determined that current chopping may be the reason for the stepped arc voltage. Then, the characteristics of the secondary arc of the solar array are demonstrated. The study shows that the secondary arc voltage values increase with the gap length. In the case of the same cell with a fixed gap length, the voltage of the secondary arc increases with the string current. Finally, the relationship between the secondary arc voltage and the gap length is obtained which helps the string voltage and the gap length selection for system design.