Colloquium: Patrick Follis (Space Flight)

Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is commonly used to optimize the power output of solar arrays for LEO satellites. Traditional MPPT techniques such as Perturb & Observe often struggle when the satellite is rotating and the temperature and incident irradiance are rapidly changing. This scenario frequently occurs with miniaturized satellites, such as the recent Delfi-PQ satellite launched by TU Delft. One possible solution utilizes temperature measurements to perform MPPT, which is a more responsive architecture and better suited to rapidly changing environmental conditions. This project characterized the performance of a triple-junction solar cell at various temperatures and irradiance levels. The performance of a linear temperature-based MPPT formula was then estimated by comparing the experimentally collected solar cell data to formula predictions. This was an important first step in the possible implementation of temperature-based MPPT on future Delfi satellites.

Supervisor: Sevket Uludag