Virtual instruments for photovoltaic measurements

Abstract

The present work is an effort to put together knowledge from several disciplines to obtain as result simple and affordable instruments for photovoltaic measurements. It could not be considered a research in advanced topics but it is a preliminary work in virtual instrumentation with broad prospects and useful and immediate applications. However, the established foundations and the acquired experience allow their application in the measurement of physical and physical-chemical parameters in various fields of science and engineering. One of them is the challenge of applying virtual instruments to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. * This work contains four Chapters, Conclusions and Recommendations. Several Annexes corresponding to each chapter are at the end of each chapter. Chapter 1 introduces preliminary topics and basic definitions, the Electromagnetic Spectrum, the Planck’s Equation and Sunlight. Then summarizes the description of Light as Wave and Light as Photon. Annex 1 for Chapter 1 is a paper that procures conciliate this two descriptions using equations from electromagnetic theory and the basic equations of photons. Chapter 2 introduces essential optical components and. procedures to design a simple spectrometer and monochromator. Useful electronic components, common light sensors and useful electronic stages for photovoltaic measurements are described. Finally, practical front end circuits used in this work are exposed. Chapter 3 Is related with Data Acquisition and Control using Microcontrollers and Android Devices. Preliminary Topics, IOIO-OTG – the microcontroller board – characterization and interfacing, Programming Android Devices as Measuring Instruments, Interfacing front end Circuits with the microcontroller and the transparency Android ↔Windows data transfer are the topics dealt in this chapter. Chapter 4 introduces the mathematical and graphic emulator used to develop the routines that are part of the proposed virtual instruments. The common algorithms for this project are described. Next, the individual virtual instruments algorithms are described. Finally, measurements made with the virtual instrument prototype and the Laboratory equipment has been intercompared and consistency has been verified in these results. Every Chapter ends with Bibliography - numbered in [] – and Basic References –numbered in {}. Annexes for all chapters are at the end of each chapter. Conclussions and Recommendations are presented at the end.