An Integrated Measurement Platform for a Solar Cell Based on Virtual Instruments

Abstract

This paper presents an integrated measurement platform for a solar cell based on virtual instruments. A programmable high-speed digital input and output(I/O) device was adopted to control the stepper motor to allow for changes in the load resistance of the solar cell return circuit. Then, four programmable digital multimeters were used to acquire the voltage and current of the solar cell and sensors. We obtained the results by analyzing the experimental data. The measurement accuracy and efficiency were greatly improved in the virtual instrument platform compared with the conventional measurement method, which is of great significance for scientific research. Section I describes the problems with the conventional measurements of solar cell parameters and presents a solution to these problems using virtual instrument technology. Section II describ the hardware design of the measurement system. Section III describ the software design of the virtual instrument measurement system. Conventional measurement methods and the virtual instrument measurement method are compared in section IV.