374 IEEE JOURNAL OF PHOTOVOLTAICS, VOL. 7, NO.

1, JANUARY 2017

Thermal Design of Photovoltaic/Microwave

Conversion Hybrid Panel for Space
Solar Power System
Daisuke Sato, Noboru Yamada, Member, IEEE, and Koji Tanaka

Abstract—This paper describes the thermal design of a pho-

tovoltaic/microwave conversion hybrid panel for a tethered solar
power satellite (SPS). A practical configuration of the hybrid panel
with a sandwich structure was designed, and its thermal charac-
teristics were unveiled. The thermal resistance of the panel was
experimentally measured and used for a realistic simulation. The
daily temperature variation of the designed panel and thermal de-
formation of the antenna surface during the SPS operation were
simulated. The results show that the present panel satisfies the
design requirements for the panel weight and deformation of the
antenna surface; however, the power amplifier temperature ex-
ceeds the lower limit of the design requirements. As a solution to
this problem, a spectrally selective coating on solar cell surface
was examined as a passive temperature control method. The fab-
ricated multilayer selective coating showed a significant tempera-
ture increase, demonstrating the feasibility of the present thermal
design.
Index Terms—Artificial satellites, optical filters, photovoltaic
(PV) systems, thermal analysis, thermal management.
Fig. 1. Conceptual image of Tethered-SPS with target efficiencies.
I. INTRODUCTION
N OUTER space, the amount of available solar energy is
I ten times of that available on the surface of Earth because
sunlight is not affected by seasons, weather, time of day, or at-
liability because the rotary joint and single power-transmission
line become single points of failure. Most of the SPS configu-
mospheric attenuation. Thus, space-based solar power systems rations [2]–[6] use a sun-tracking system or solar reflector for
(SSPSs) have the potential to be an efficient power generation constant power generation. However, the sun-tracking system
method relative to ground-based photovoltaic (PV) systems. In requires complicated configurations and challenging technolo-
SSPS, a solar power satellite (SPS) has large-area PV panels that gies for the attitude control of very-large-scale solar panel arrays
generate electric power in outer space and transmits the power to and/or concentrator mirrors.
a rectenna on the surface of the Earth using a wireless transmis- As an opposite approach to those SPS concepts, the Japan
sion system. Since Glaser’s original idea [1], various types of Aerospace Exploration Agency has proposed a simple and
the SPS configuration have been proposed in the United States, technically feasible SPS configuration called “Tethered-SPS”
Europe, and Japan [2]–[6]. The NASA/DOE reference model [7]. Fig. 1 shows the conceptual image of Tethered-SPS with
[2] has technical difficulties in the rotary joint mechanism for target efficiencies. Because Tethered-SPS does not have any sun-
gigawatt-order power transmission through a movable contact tracking and concentrator system, the capacity factor becomes
and single and long-distance power-transmission line from the approximately 60%, even in the case where solar cells are at-
solar array panel to the microwave transmitter. In addition, that tached to both top and bottom surfaces [7], which is lower than
configuration essentially causes the degradation of long-term re- that of the other sun-tracking or concentrating SPS that attains
nearly 100%. The Tethered-SPS has, however, a very simple
configuration by using a unique PV/microwave conversion hy-
Manuscript received May 8, 2016; revised July 31, 2016; accepted Novem- brid panel, in which solar cells, DC radio-frequency (DC-RF)
ber 7, 2016. Date of publication December 1, 2016; date of current version
December 20, 2016. convertor, and transmission antenna are integrated. Owing to the
D. Sato and N. Yamada are with the Department of Mechanical Engineer- flat sandwich structure of the hybrid panel, its large area (2.5
ing, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka 940-2188, Japan (e-mail: km × 2.4 km) can be divided into modularized deployable units
sato_daisuke@stn.nagaokaut.ac.jp; noboru@nagaokaut.ac.jp).
K. Tanaka is with the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, that can be folded in a compact form during the launch. Another
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sagamihara 252-5210, Japan (e-mail: benefit of the Tethered-SPS is that the satellite attitude is auto-
ktanaka@isas.jaxa.jp). matically controlled such that the antenna surface faces toward
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. the rectenna on the surface of the Earth by only a gravity gradient
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JPHOTOV.2016.2629843 force. For these reasons, the Tethered-SPS has been studied as
2156-3381 © 2016 IEEE. Translations and content mining are permitted for academic research only. Personal use is also permitted, but republication/redistribution
requires IEEE permission. See http://www.ieee.org/publications standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
SATO et al.: THERMAL DESIGN OF PHOTOVOLTAIC/MICROWAVE CONVERSION HYBRID PANEL FOR SPACE SOLAR POWER SYSTEM 375

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the designed PV/microwave conversion hybrid panel.

a pilot model of the SPS in Japan. In the relevant studies toward TABLE I
LAYER COMPONENTS AND DESIGN PARAMETERS OF THE HYBRID PANEL
the realization of the Tethered-SPS, remarkable achievements
of microwave power-transmission (MPT) technology have been
Layer Component Thickness Density
reported [8]–[14], and the MPT experiment is in the phase of
[mm] [kg/m3 ]
space demonstration [15]. Furthermore, significant progress in
the development of the space solar cells that are light weight Power-generation layer Cover glass 0.05 2500
Solar cell 0.015 8148
and have a high efficiency of over 30% has been reported [16]– Polyimide film 0.07 1420
[18]. Although elemental technologies such as MPT and solar Aluminum substrate 0.2 2685
cells are steadily approaching their goals, an optimized structure Aluminum honeycomb core 5.0 37
design of hybrid panels has yet to be studied in detail. DC-RF conversion layer Aluminum substrate 0.2 2685
Thermal design is an essential step in the development of Microwave circuit substrate 0.4 2230
hybrid panels for Tethered-SPS that show different thermal be- Power amplifier (Area: 3.5 6150
10 mm × 10 mm)
havior from the one for concentrating SPS [19]. During oper- Aluminum honeycomb core 5.0 37
ations in geostationary orbit, the panel temperature fluctuates
Power-transmission layer Microwave circuit substrate 0.4 2230
dynamically because of the time variation of the incident angle Polyimide film 0.07 1420
of sunlight on the panel surface, affecting the performance and Solar cell 0.015 8148
long-term reliability of electric devices in the hybrid panel. In Cover glass 0.05 2500

addition, the thermal deformation of the antenna surface can

be caused by this temperature fluctuation and may decrease the
power-transmission accuracy. We have previously reported a
practical design of the hybrid panel and modeling for the sim-
ulation of temperature variation during the SPS operation [20].
In this paper, we have updated the modeling and extended the
discussion to the thermal deformation of the designed panel.
Furthermore, to maintain the temperature fluctuation within a
design requirement, we examined a spectrally selective coating
(SSC) on the solar cell surface as a passive temperature con-
trol method for the hybrid panel that requires different spectral
characteristics from the conventional optical filters or coatings
for existing spacecraft.
II. HYBRID PANEL DESIGN
Fig. 2 illustrates the structure of the designed hybrid panel.
The hybrid panel has a sandwich structure with three func-
tional layers: power-generation layer, DC-RF conversion layer,
and power-transmission layer. Light-weight and high-efficiency
multijunction solar cells, such as those reported in [16], are
attached to the surfaces of the power-generation and power-
transmission layers, except for the antenna surface. The gener-
ated electric power is then converted into microwaves by elec-
tric devices in the DC-RF conversion layer. The power amplifier
has the largest impact on the thermal design because the power
consumption, that is, heat flux density, is particularly large com-
pared with other electric devices. Thus, other electric devices
such as phase shifter and cables in the DC-RF conversion layer
are neglected in this study. There are four power amplifiers in
the panel area of 158 mm × 158 mm. The microwave is trans-
mitted by phased array antennas at the surface of the power-
transmission layer. Aluminum honeycomb cores are inserted
between the layers to support the panel structure.
For the thermal design of the hybrid panel, we have deter-
mined tentative design requirements to ensure proper operation.
1) The panel weight per aperture area is lower than 4.2 kg/m2
[21] to meet the cost requirements for the launch and
deployment; in the hybrid panel configuration that we
designed as shown in Table I, the panel weight per aperture
area is 4.1 kg/m2 , satisfying this requirement.
376 IEEE JOURNAL OF PHOTOVOLTAICS, VOL. 7, NO. 1, JANUARY 2017

Fig. 3. Prototype panel for the measurement of thermal resistance of adhesive

layers.

2) The allowable temperature range of the solar cells and

power amplifier is of −150–110 °C [22] and −40–192 °C,
respectively, to maintain long-term performance; here,
we assumed the usage of gallium nitride (GaN) ampli-
fier, which is more suitable for high-temperature opera-
tions than the conventional silicon (Si) or gallium arsenide Fig. 4. Thermometric points of the prototype panel for thermal-vacuum
(GaAs) amplifier [23]. testing.
3) To ensure the power-transmission accuracy, that is, the
accuracy of the direction of microwave emitted from the
phased array antenna, the curve of the antenna surface
caused by thermal deformation must be smaller than ±5◦
[21]. If the deformation angle is not maintained within this
range, the microwave cannot be efficiently transmitted to
the rectenna on the surface of the Earth.

III. THERMAL RESISTANCE MEASUREMENT AND MODELING

To simulate the thermal behavior of the hybrid panel, in which
many components are sandwiched with seven adhesive layers,
the thermal resistance of the adhesive layers must be correctly
accounted. However, it is generally difficult to know the ther-
mal resistance of the adhesive layers in practical conditions by
only using a theoretical approach because the thickness of the
adhesive layer is not uniform in the lateral direction, and it
is difficult to measure after fabrication. We experimentally es-
timated the thermal resistance through a thermal-vacuum test
using a prototype panel shown in Fig. 3 [20]. In the prototype
panel, dummy solar cells, which have a similar area, thermal
conductivity, and emissivity to practical solar cells, were used.
An adhesive film (Cytec, FM 73M OST film adhesive .06PSF)
and the sandwiching technique, which are used in real space
structures, were used for the honeycomb panel fabrication. A
silicone adhesive (Wacker, RTV-S 691), which is used for the
attachment of solar cells to artificial satellites, was also used. A
thermally conductive adhesive (Shin-Etsu Silicone, KE-3467)
was used to attach the electric heaters to the aluminum sub-
strate. Those heaters emulate the structure and heat generation
of the power amplifiers. Thermocouples were inserted into 16
thermometric points, as shown in Fig. 4.
Fig. 5 shows the experimental setup of the thermal-vacuum
test for the thermal resistance measurement. To emulate the
conditions in space, the temperature and pressure inside the
space chamber were maintained at less than −150 °C and
Fig. 5. Experimental setup of the thermal-vacuum test for the thermal resis-
tance measurement.
1.0 × 10−2 Pa, respectively. The top surface of the prototype
panel was covered with dummy solar cells facing to the glass
window of the space chamber, where artificial sunlight with
AM0 spectrum (1350 W/m2 ) penetrates and hits the top sur-
face. Steady-state temperatures at thermometric points under
the AM0 spectrum on the top surface were measured and used
for the estimation of the thermal resistance of the adhesive lay-
ers. Thermal resistance is defined as
Ti − Tj
Ri,j = , i, j = 1 − 16, i = j (1)
Q
where Ri,j [K/W] is the thermal resistance of the layer between
the two thermometric points whose temperatures are Ti and Tj
[K], as shown in Fig. 4, and Q [W] is the heat input. Here,
Q at each thermometric point is unknown; therefore, we esti-
mated the thermal resistance of the adhesive layers by using not
only the experimental results but simulation results as well. The
simulation was conducted without considering the adhesive lay-
ers. A 3-D simulation model simulating the thermal-vacuum test
was built without adhesive layers with the finite-element method
SATO et al.: THERMAL DESIGN OF PHOTOVOLTAIC/MICROWAVE CONVERSION HYBRID PANEL FOR SPACE SOLAR POWER SYSTEM 377

software ANSYS (ANSYS Inc.). In the simulation model, the

aluminum honeycomb core was approximated by a virtual ho-
mogeneous material that has an equivalent thermal conductivity.
When (1) is applied to both the experimental and simulation re-
sults, they are expressed as
Te i − Te j
Re i,j = (2)
Qe
Ts i − Ts j
Rs i,j = (3)
Qs
where subscripts “e” and “s” correspond to experimental and
simulation results, respectively. We assumed that Qe and Qs
are equivalent because they are governed by the irradiance of
the artificial sunlight and radiative properties of the panel sur-
face, and these are the same in the experimental and simulated Fig. 6. Experimental and simulation results corresponding to the thermometric
conditions. Thus, Re i,j is given by points shown in Fig. 4.

Te i − Te j
Re i,j = Rs i,j . (4)
Ts i − Ts j

Re i,j is the experimental thermal resistance between thermo-

metric points including the thermal resistance of adhesive layers.
Rs i,j is the simulated one, which does not include the thermal
resistance of adhesive layers, that can be obtained as the sum of
the thermal resistance of all the panel components between the
thermometric points given by
 l
Rs i,j =
κ
where l [m] is the thickness and κ [W/(m · K)] is the ther-
mal conductivity of the panel component, and their values are
known. Finally, the thermal resistance of adhesive layers be-
tween thermometric points is calculated by subtracting Rs i,j ,
from Re i,j , as follows:
 
Te i − Te j l To predict the daily temperature variation of the hybrid PV
Ra i,j = Re i,j − Rs i,j = −1
Ts i − Ts j κ
where Ra i,j [K/W] is thermal resistance of adhesive layers be-
tween each thermometric point. The average temperature of the
axisymmetric thermometric points such as points 3 and 5 shown
in Fig. 4 was used for Ti and Tj . For example, in the case of
the calculation of the thermal resistance of the silicone adhe-
sive layer shown in Fig. 4, Ti is the temperature of thermometric
point 2 and Tj is the average temperature of thermometric points
3 and 5. The panel components between the thermometric pairs
of 2 and 3 and 2 and 5 are the dummy solar cells, polyimide film,
and aluminum substrate. Thus, the sum of the thermal resistance
of those components represents Rs i,j .
Finally, the obtained thermal resistance of the adhesive layer
was added to the 3-D simulation model for a realistic simulation.
Fig. 6 shows the comparison of the measured and simulated
temperatures under the condition of the thermal-vacuum test.
The simulation result agrees with the experimental value, and
the average difference between both is 1.4 °C, confirming the
validity of the obtained thermal resistance of the adhesive layers.
(5)
Fig. 7. Schematic diagram of the thermal environment for Tethered-SPS dur-
ing the SPS operation in a geostationary orbit.
IV. SIMULATION OF THE TEMPERATURE VARIATION
(6) panel on the summer solstice, the simulation model was rebuilt
by inputting the above-obtained thermal resistance of adhesive
layers between each layer of the practical hybrid panel structure
shown in Fig. 2. The panel area is assumed to be 1106 mm ×
1106 mm, and the thickness of the panel components is summa-
rized in Table I. It should be noted that the authors previously
reported a similar simulation with different results [20]. How-
ever, in the present study, we have updated the simulation model
and conditions to be more realistic and to satisfy the panel re-
quirements. Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram of the thermal
environment for the hybrid panel during the SPS operation. The
hybrid panel in the Tethered-SPS is heated by the solar radia-
tion, Earth-reflected radiation (also known as albedo), infrared
radiation of Earth, and heat generation of the power amplifier.
The top surface of the panel is heated by the solar radiation
only, whereas the bottom surface of the panel, that is, the an-
tenna surface, is heated by the infrared radiation from Earth
and Earth-reflected radiation, as well as solar radiation. On the
summer solstice, the hybrid panel is tilted 23.4° from the nor-
mal direction of the revolution surface and orbits around Earth
378
at a speed of 15°/h in the geostationary orbit of approximately
36000 × 103 m above the equator. The net solar radiation to the
top and bottom surface is estimated by
qs = G cos(23.4◦ )|cos(15t◦ )| (7)
where G is the solar constant (=1366 W/m2 [24]), and t [h] is
the elapsed time from 0:00. For 0 ≤ t < 6 and 18 < t ≤ 24, the
top surface receives sunlight and the bottom surface does not.
For 6 < t < 18, the bottom surface receives sunlight and the top
surface does not. The net infrared radiation from Earth received
by the panel on the geostationary orbit is given by [25]
2
rrad
qe = H 2
(8)
rorbit
where H [W/m2 ] is the annual mean of the infrared irradiance
of Earth (237 W/m2 ), rrad [m] is the emitting radius of the Earth
(6371 × 103 m), and rorbit [m] is altitude of the geostation-
ary orbit (36 000 × 103 m). The net Earth-reflected radiation
received by the panel is approximated by
2 shows the average temperature of each panel component. The so-
rrad
qa = 0.3G 2
2rorbit
 However, the power amplifier temperature exceeds the lower
= 6.42, (0 ≤ t < 6, 18 < t ≤ 24)
(9)
0, (6 ≤ t ≤ 18).
Here, we assumed the albedo factor of the Earth surface to be
0.3. The infrared radiation of Earth and Earth-reflected radiation
hit the bottom surface of the panel only. We assumed that all
conversion loss in the DC-RF conversion layer becomes heat in
the power amplifier. The heat generation of the power amplifier
is proportional to the heat flux of solar radiation to the solar cell
and is estimated as
qs αAηcell (1 − ηam p )
Qam p = (10)
Nam p
where Qam p [W/pcs] is the heat generation of the power am-
plifier, α is the solar absorptance of the solar cells, A [m2 ] is
the solar cell area, ηcell is the conversion efficiency of the solar
cell, ηam p is the conversion efficiency of the power amplifier,
and Nam p is the number of power amplifiers in the solar cell
area A. Here, ηcell and ηam p were set to 0.35 [7] and 0.8 [26],
respectively, which are the target values for the first pilot plant.
The daily variation of the incoming heats given by (7)–(10)
is summarized in Fig. 8. The infrared radiation of Earth and the
Earth-reflected radiation are very small compared with the solar
radiation.
Against these incoming heats, the hybrid panel disperses the
heat only by thermal radiation from the panel surface to outer
space. The infrared heat flux emitted by the panel surface is
given by the Stefan–Boltzmann law:
 
qout = εσ T 4 − Tspace
4
(11)
where ε is the emissivity of the panel surface, σ is the Stefan–
Boltzmann constant, and T and Tspace [K] are the surface
temperature of the hybrid panel and the equivalent blackbody
temperature of outer space (2.7 K), respectively. Table II shows
the thermal properties of the hybrid panel components used in
IEEE JOURNAL OF PHOTOVOLTAICS, VOL. 7, NO. 1, JANUARY 2017
Fig. 8. Simulated daily variation of incoming radiations and heat generation
of the power amplifier.
the present simulation. The aluminum honeycomb core was ap-
proximated by the virtual homogeneous material mentioned in
the previous section.
Fig. 9 shows the simulated daily temperature variation of
the top surface, power amplifier, and bottom surface. This result
lar cell temperature is maintained within the allowable range of
the design requirement (−150–110 °C) mentioned in Section II.
limit of the allowable range (−40 °C) around 6:00 and 18:00
when both the top and bottom surfaces do not receive enough
sunlight. The maximum temperature drop from the lower limit
is 69 °C at 18:10. The temperature of the power amplifier must
be increased. Fig. 9 also shows that the maximum temperature
difference between solar cell and power amplifier is as small
as 6 °C; the power amplifier temperature should be below the
upper limit of the design requirement for the solar cell. Thus,
the power amplifier temperature should be within the range of
−40–110 °C. In this case, the allowable temperature amplitude
is 150 °C. However, in Fig. 9, the temperature amplitude is 145
°C, and there is a small margin of 5 °C. Therefore, not only an
increase in the temperature but a reduction of the temperature
amplitude is required as well.
V. SIMULATION OF THE THERMAL DEFORMATION
Based on the daily temperature variation described in
Section IV, we simulated the maximum thermal deformation
of the antenna surface, which affects the direction of microwave
emitted from the phased array antenna, that is, the power-
transmission accuracy. In this simulation, we assume that the
initial temperature of all components of the panel is 20 °C,
at which no deformations occur. The maximum thermal de-
formation of the antenna surface occurs when the temperature
difference from the initial condition becomes the largest. Table
III shows the structural properties of the hybrid panel compo-
nents used in the present simulation. Structural properties of the
aluminum honeycomb core are approximated by using Multi-
scale.Sim, an add-in program for ANSYS (Cybernet Systems
Co., Ltd.). To clarify a fundamental deformation behavior, ther-
mal deformation is simulated at no-restraint conditions, meaning
that there is no supporting frame for the panel.
Fig. 10 shows the panel shape at the maximum thermal defor-
mation that occurs at approximately 6:00 and 18:00. The shape
SATO et al.: THERMAL DESIGN OF PHOTOVOLTAIC/MICROWAVE CONVERSION HYBRID PANEL FOR SPACE SOLAR POWER SYSTEM
THERMAL PROPERTIES OF HYBRID PANEL COMPONENTS
Component Thermal conductivity [W/(m·K)]
Cover glass 1 753
Solar cell (GaAs) 55
Polyimide film 0.16
Aluminum substrate 138
Aluminum honeycomb core 1.9
Power amplifier (GaN) 130
Microwave circuit substrate 0.261
Antenna pattern (Copper foil) Neglected
Fig. 9. Simulated daily temperature variation of the main components of the
hybrid panel.
illustration is magnified by a factor of 30. The displacement of
the antenna surface in the z-direction is shown as color con-
tours. The curve of the antenna surface was fitted by a cubic
function, and the local deformation angle of the antenna surface
was calculated. The resultant maximum deformation angle of
the antenna surface is 1.8°. Thus, the thermal deformation of
the antenna surface in the panel area of 1106 mm × 1106 mm
is maintained within the allowable range, that is, less than ±5◦
during the SPS operation.
VI. PANEL TEMPERATURE CONTROL BY SPECTRALLY
SELECTIVE COATING
In Section IV, the necessity to increase the temperature and
to reduce the amplitude of the temperature fluctuation of the
power amplifier was revealed. To solve this problem, a thermal
control method is necessary. The thermal control method for the
hybrid panel should not need extra mechanical and/or electrical
devices, which would increase the panel weight and consume
the electric power. Attaching an SSC on the panel surface can
be a solution; however, the SSC should be attached on the only
solar cell surface because its presence on the antenna surface
may affect the microwave transmission. In this case, the SSC
must be highly transparent for sunlight.
Fig. 11 shows a concept of the SSC for the temperature control
of the hybrid panel. The SSC is applied to the cover glass on the
solar cell. The cover glass has high transmittance over the solar
spectrum and high emissivity over the infrared thermal radiation
379
TABLE II
Specific heat [J/(kg·K)] Density [kg/m3 ] Emissivity (infrared region) Absorptance (solar region)
2500 0.90 0 (completely transparent)
330 5317 N/A 0.92
Neglected Neglected N/A N/A
963 2685 N/A N/A
963 37 N/A N/A
490 6150 N/A N/A
950 2230 N/A N/A
Neglected Neglected 0.15 0.28
spectrum. The SSC is intended to add the optical property to the
cover glass so that it reflects the infrared radiation more than
9 μm, that is, the infrared radiation below 9 μm emitted from the
glass is emitted outside through the SSC, while radiation above
9 μm is blocked by the SSC. According to Wien’s displacement
law, the peak of the blackbody radiation spectrum shifts to the
shorter wavelength, as the blackbody temperature increases.
Therefore, the SSC enables the intended emissivity control, that
is, high emissivity at high temperature contributes to cooling
the panel, while low emissivity at low temperature contributes
to warming the panel.
Multilayer films are a typical optical coating technique for
SSCs. In previous studies of SSCs based on multilayer films,
several applications have been reported: Tachikawa et al. have
proposed a multilayer coating, which has high reflectance in the
solar spectrum and high transmittance in the infrared spectrum
on radiators for spacecraft [27]; Shou et al. have focused on
the solar spectrum only and proposed a thin-film filter that has
high reflectance from 400 to 1100 nm, and high transmittance
from 1100 to 2500 nm, for the PV/thermal hybrid system [28];
Raman et al. have reported a passive radiative cooling device
that promotes emissivity at wavelengths of atmospheric win-
dow (ca. 8–13 μm) and highly reflects the sunlight [29]. As
an emissivity control method, thermochromic materials such
as perovskite manganese oxide [30]–[32] and vanadium diox-
ide [33], [34] have been studied as smart radiation devices in
which emissivity changes depending on the device temperature.
However, the transmittance at solar spectrum of thermochromic
materials is low for the solar cell operation. Therefore, to the
best of our knowledge, the SSC that meets the requirements
for the present concept, that is, performing the high transmit-
tance over solar spectrum and the desirable emissivity control
in infrared spectrum, has not been studied to date.
We attempted to design and demonstrate the multilayer SSC
to control the panel temperature. The 55-layer SSC with a total
thickness of approximately 5.9 μm consisting of zinc sulfide
(ZnS) and magnesium fluoride (MgF2 ) layers was designed
using the needle optimization method [35], [36] implemented
in the thin-film design software TFCalc (Software Spectra Inc.).
This SSC was then fabricated on a glass substrate to verify the
optical characteristics.
Fig. 12 shows the simulated and measured results of the spec-
tral emissivity of the designed multilayer SSC on the glass sub-
strate. To evaluate temperature dependence of the emissivity, the
380 IEEE JOURNAL OF PHOTOVOLTAICS, VOL. 7, NO. 1, JANUARY 2017

TABLE III
STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF HYBRID PANEL COMPONENTS

Component Young’s modulus [GPa] Poisson’s ratio Shear modulus [GPa] Coefficient of thermal expansion [×10−6 /K]

Cover glass 71.6 0.23 29.1 8.5

Solar cell Neglected Neglected Neglected Neglected
Polyimide film Neglected Neglected Neglected Neglected
Aluminum substrate 69.3 0.30 26.7 24
Aluminum honeycomb core x: 0.213 y: 0.208 z: 5.49 xy: 0.94 yz: 0.0078 xz: 0.017 xy: 0.0370 yz: 1.10 xz: 1.09 x: 30 y: 14 z: 23
Power amplifier (GaN) 181 0.35 66.9 5.6
Microwave circuit substrate 30 0.17 12.8 x: 25 y: 34 z: 252

Fig. 10. Simulated shape and displacement of the antenna surface at the
maximum thermal deformation case.

Fig. 12. Simulated and measured spectral emissivity of the SSC on a glass
substrate corresponding to the blackbody radiation spectrum.

Fig. 11. Concept of SSC for the hybrid panel.

emissivity at each temperature was determined by integrating

over the Planck’s blackbody radiation spectrum:
 20 μm
4 μm ελ EbλT dλ
εT =  20 μm (12)
4 μm EbλT dλ

where ελ is the spectral emissivity of the SSC shown in the up-

per tier in Fig. 12, and EbλT [W/(m2 · μm)] stands for Planck’s
spectral distribution of blackbody emissive power at each tem-
perature T shown in the lower tier in Fig. 12. Fig. 13 shows the
temperature dependence of the emissivity calculated by (12). As Fig. 13. Temperature dependence of the emissivity of the SSC on a glass
the temperature varies from 173 K (−100 °C) to 373 K (100 °C), substrate estimated based on Fig. 12.
the emissivity increases by 0.37, 0.14, and 0.11 in the case of
an ideal coating, designed coating with simulated emissivity,
and designed coating with measured emissivity, respectively. In the performance of the fabricated SSC is slightly lower than the
addition, the transmittance of the SSC to vertically incident sun- designed value. The obtained solar transmittance and tempera-
light for AM0 spectrum is 0.89 based on the simulated optical ture dependence of the emissivity fitted by a cubic function were
property and 0.84 based on the measured optical property. It is used as input in the simulation model. Fig. 14 shows the sim-
a feasible transmittance for a proof-of-concept study, although ulated daily temperature variation of the power amplifier using
SATO et al.: THERMAL DESIGN OF PHOTOVOLTAIC/MICROWAVE CONVERSION HYBRID PANEL FOR SPACE SOLAR POWER SYSTEM
Fig. 14. Simulated daily temperature variation of the power amplifier
with/without the designed SSCs. In the ideal coating case, emissivity changes
along the black line in Fig. 13. In the designed coating (with simulated emis-
sivity) case, emissivity changes along the red line in Fig. 13. In the designed
coating (with measured emissivity) case, emissivity changes along the blue line
in Fig. 13. In the no-coating case, emissivity is constant at 0.90 (emissivity of
cover glass).
the simulation model with the SSC under the same conditions
in Section IV. The power amplifier temperature still exceeds the
lower limit of allowable range (−40 °C), even if the designed
SSC is used. However, the minimum temperature is significantly
increased from −109 °C (no coating, dashed black line) to −65
°C (designed coating with simulated emissivity, red line), show-
ing as much as 44 °C improvement. Furthermore, with the SSC,
the temperature amplitude becomes 7 °C lower than without
the SSC. Although the simulated result based on the measured
emissivity of the fabricated SSC (blue line) shows slightly less
improvement than the result based on the simulated emissivity
(red line), the trend is similar in the both cases, thus demon-
strating the feasibility of the present concept. In this study, the
material selection for the multilayer composition of the SSC
was limited because of the limited optical property data in the
infrared wavelength range. Further exploration of the best ma-
terials that show a spectral emissivity closer to the ideal case is
needed.
VII. CONCLUSION
A practical configuration of a PV/microwave conversion hy-
brid panel for Tethered-SPS was designed, and the temperature
variation and thermal deformation of the antenna surface during
the SPS operation were investigated through experiment and
simulation. Although the estimated thermal deformation sat-
isfied the requirements, the power amplifier temperature was
69 °C below its lower limit of the allowable range. As a so-
lution to this problem, an SSC on the solar cell surface was
designed and fabricated for a proof-of-concept study. The fab-
ricated multilayer SSC demonstrated a significant temperature
increase, indicating that the use of a SSC is a promising solution
for temperature control of the present hybrid panel. The present
result will be an important step towards the full demonstration
of the sandwich-based hybrid panel. In future research works,
the following topics should be addressed: further optimization
of the coating for higher solar transmittance and closer to ideal
381
emissivity characteristics; development of panel components re-
flecting the present study, e.g., a power amplifier that can operate
at very low temperatures; a design refinement that is durable for
long-term operation; and demonstration of the full function of
the hybrid panel under artificial and/or real space conditions.
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Authors’ photographs and biographies not available at the time of publication.