Solar Panel Designed for ESD Protection

New high power, high voltage solar arrays for spacecraft have increased the risk of damage by electrostatic discharge (ESD) mechanisms. The objective of this SBIR program is to generate an objective evaluation of the potential ESD power degradationphenomenon as applied to geosynchronous satellites and to design and demonstrate an ESD free solar array panel. A new approach to solar panel ESD mitigation that incorporates a front side aperture (FSA) shield will be developed. The FSA shield covers theinter-cell and edge areas to provide a contiguous ground plane on the front side and edges, connecting them to the electrically conductive back surface ground plane. The phase I effort will consist of three tasks: Task 1 will consist of component andsystem level design optimization studies on the ESD free panel. In Task 2, bonded joints, assembly, and rework approaches for the ESD free panel will be evaluated. Task 3 will focus on fabricating and testing a demonstration module of an ESD freepanel.Nearly all DoD, civilian and commercial spacecraft use solar arrays to generate on-orbit electrical power. As demonstrated by recent failures, the potential for electrostatic discharge (ESD) generated damage exists for all the DoD, commercial andcivilian high power, high voltage spacecraft solar arrays. Technology developed on this SBIR program is a key element in eliminating ESD generated solar array damage; thereby improving spacecraft performance, reliability and cost.