Investigation Of Virtual Instrumentation-based Automatic Testing System For Solar Energy Cell

During the progressing of solar cell texting，its working condition has a great valuein measuring whether the cell are qualified. The difference between made materials andproduction technology can lead to an even greater difference in its properties. So thedetermination for its working parameters becomes a fatal problem during the productionprogress. Traditional testing systems for solar cells are usually designed for just one orseveral simple kinds of solar cells which can have many shortages.The automatic self-testing system in this article is based on virtual instrumenttechnology, combined with variety knowledge of hardware devices and softwareengineering. This system applies to thermal cycle testing in National standard IEC61215.Based on design method for automatic-testing system，we got a solving plan for ourtesting goal by coordinate hardware selection and software programming.In hardware selection part，by reading lot of related articles in the automatic celltesting field，we get familiar with hardware that needed in building up a automatictesting system. Then we made comparison and set up a program for hardware selectionand make it work.In programming part, we developed a process in accordance with the waterfallmodel of software development, and after using the idea of modular programmingthesoftware is divided into functional modules, and each functional part achieve its functionby programming separately. At last, we integrate all the function modules into oneprogram. We took LabVIEW2009as programming language.In testing section, the systems delivered to customers to perform a thermal cycletest period in6hours, testing two samples. One of the sample is qualified and the otherone is battery component. Tests show that this system is able to complete the thermalcycle test, identify the unqualified battery components, and generate reports The test entirely feasible. The actual use of the automatic test system designed inthis paper has advantages like cheaper device, simple steps，friendly interface and easyto use, able to complete the thermal cycling test in50and200times. This systemachieve the design purpose and requirement.