# US 8,785,829 B2 · Systems, circuits, and methods for reconfiguring solar cells of an adaptive solar power system

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- Number: US 8,785,829 B2
- Document ID: US8785829B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 12/969,391
- Filed: 2010-12-15
- Published: 2011-06-23
- Granted: 2014-07-22
- Earliest claimed: 2009-12-16
- Assignees: Saful Consulting
- Applicants: Nagendra Srinivas Cherukupalli
- Inventors: Nagendra Srinivas Cherukupalli
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US8785829B2

## CPC

- H02S 50/10: Testing of PV devices, e.g. of PV modules or single PV cells (testing of semiconductor devices during manufacturing {H10P74/00})
- G01R 19/16576: {comparing DC or AC voltage with one threshold (G01R19/16514, G01R19/16519, G01R19/16528, G01R19/16533 and G01R19/1659 take precedence)}
- G01R 31/26: Testing of individual semiconductor devices (testing of photovoltaic devices H02S50/10; testing or measuring during manufacture or treatment {H10P74/00})
- H02S 30/10: Frame structures
- H02S 40/10: Cleaning arrangements
- H02S 40/32: comprising DC/AC inverter means associated with the PV module itself, e.g. AC modules
- H02S 40/34: comprising specially adapted electrical connection means to be structurally associated with the PV module, e.g. junction boxes
- H02S 40/36: characterised by special electrical interconnection means between two or more PV modules, e.g. electrical module-to-module connection
- H02S 50/00: Monitoring or testing of PV systems, e.g. load balancing or fault identification
- H10F 19/85: Protective back sheets
- H10F 19/902: {for series or parallel connection of photovoltaic cells}
- H10F 19/904: {characterised by the shapes of the structures}
- H10F 19/906: {characterised by the materials of the structures}
- H10F 19/908: {for back-contact photovoltaic cells}
- H10F 71/137: {Batch treatment of the devices}
- H10F 77/955: {for photovoltaic devices}
- Y02E 10/50: Photovoltaic [PV] energy
- Y10S 136/293: Circuits
- Y10S 323/906: Solar cell systems
- Y10T 29/49002: Electrical device making
- H02S: GENERATION OF ELECTRIC POWER BY CONVERSION OF INFRARED RADIATION, VISIBLE LIGHT OR ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT, e.g. USING PHOTOVOLTAIC [PV] MODULES (obtaining electrical energy from radioactive sources G21H1/12; light sensitive inorganic semiconductor devices H10F; light sensitive organic semiconductor devices H10K30/00; thermoelectric devices H10N10/00; pyroelectric devices H10N15/00)
- G01R: MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES (indicating correct tuning of resonant circuits H03J3/12)
- H10F: INORGANIC SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES SENSITIVE TO INFRARED RADIATION, LIGHT, ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION OF SHORTER WAVELENGTH OR CORPUSCULAR RADIATION
- Y02E: REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
- Y10S: TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
- Y10T: TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER US CLASSIFICATION

## Abstract

A back sheet comprises an interconnect circuit coupling a plurality of solar cell tiles. A tiled solar cell, comprising a solar cell and encapsulating and glass layers, is inserted into the solar cell tiles. Each solar cell is individually monitored and addressed through the use of the interconnect circuit. As such, each solar cell and the interconnect circuit may be programmed or reconfigured through reconfiguration of the interconnect circuit.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A system for configuring and re-configuring solar cells integrated on a back sheet, the system comprising:
an interconnect circuit integrated onto the back sheet for interconnecting a plurality of solar cells so as to provide an array of individually addressable and individually re-configurable solar cells;
a monitoring circuit, integrated on the back sheet and coupled to the interconnect circuit, for monitoring one or more conditions at the individually addressable solar cells; and
a control circuit, coupled to the interconnect circuit, for configuring the interconnect circuit to exclude solar cells that are outside a specification based on the conditions at the individually addressable solar cells, for configuring the interconnect circuit to harvest power from one or more of the excluded solar cells on a parallel bus within the interconnect circuit and for integrating the power from the parallel bus to the output.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the monitoring circuit monitors the individual solar cells and the control circuit dynamically reconfigures the individual solar cells based on the needs of an application.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control circuit configures the interconnect circuit to dynamically exclude solar cells based on receiving periodic data from the monitoring circuit.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control circuit is integrated in a junction box that is coupled to the back sheet, for measuring and processing information from the monitoring circuit, and for reconfiguring the solar cells and for communicating with the monitoring and interconnect circuits on the back sheet.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The system as set forth in claim 4, wherein the control circuit in the junction box comprises a processor and memory for storing embedded software and for executing the measuring, processing, monitoring and reconfiguring.

### Claim 6 (depends on 4)

The system as set forth in claim 4, wherein the control circuit in the junction box comprises a single printed circuit board (“PCB”) for the back sheet, such that the solar cell monitoring and reconfiguration of the solar cells for the entire back sheet is managed from the single PCB.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control circuit manages each individually addressable solar cell.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control circuit manages groups of solar cells in an m×n grouping (m<number of rows in the back sheet; n<less than the number of columns in the back sheet) for configuration and reconfiguration.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control circuit further comprises storing software, in memory, and for executing the software, in a processor, to implement a learning system that forecasts failure modes of the solar cells.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control circuit further comprises an addressing scheme to select solar cells through the interconnect circuit.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control and interconnect circuits support configurable parallel and serial chaining of solar cells.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control and interconnect circuits further comprise integrating redundancy into the back sheet through inclusion of additional solar cells in the back sheet that are programmatically chained into a solar cell string using the interconnect circuit.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The system as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a DC/DC converter to integrate energy harvested from one or more excluded solar cells in order to additively include energy from the excluded solar cells to the output.

### Claim 14 (depends on 1)

The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control circuit further comprises executing a test of the system by addressing each solar cell and checking the status of each solar cell.

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

The system as set forth in claim 1, wherein the control circuit further comprises integrating additional applications that utilize the addressability of the solar cell.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The system as set forth in claim 15, wherein the application comprises an application to integrate a cleaning system that is intelligently triggered when cleaning the solar cells is required.

### Claim 17 (depends on 15)

The system as set forth in claim 15, wherein the application comprises an application to create a bitmap display of the solar cells in a solar power farm and to display the output, using a color coded system, to communicate the state of the solar cells in the entire solar power farm or a subset of the solar power farm.

### Claim 18

A system for configuring and re-configuring solar cells integrated on a back sheet, the system comprising:
an interconnect circuit integrated onto the back sheet for interconnecting a plurality of solar cells so as to provide an array of individually addressable and individually re-configurable solar cells;
a control circuit, coupled to the interconnect circuit, for configuring the interconnect circuit to exclude solar cells that are outside a specification; and
a DC/DC converter to integrate energy harvested from one or more excluded solar cells in order to additively include energy from the excluded solar cells to the output.

### Claim 19 (depends on 18)

The system as set forth in claim 18, further comprising a monitoring circuit to monitor the individual solar cells and the control circuit dynamically reconfigures the individual solar cells based on the needs of an application.