2021 will mark a change in the solar industry as bigger panels and (old) new technologies are finally hitting the market on a significant scale.

The Nexun One gets more and more order as laboratories start to understand the advantages of the LED solar simulator system.

Big Size

An increase in panel size means most of the current IV equipment will fall short.

Xenon table manufacturers are trying to increase the area, however, on a Xenon design, it becomes very complex and difficult to control the uniformity as the active area increases as they rely on a few individual lamps, inner wall reflection, and pieces of glue tape randomly placed to adjust the uniformity.

Field measurement of Xenon table systems shows big differences between advertised and actual performances, and one needs to be aware of that.

On the other hand, the matrix design of the Nexun One allows for virtually any size while keeping the non-uniformity below 1% or class A+, which is software adjustable. Avalon currently supplies laboratories with 2.7m x 1.55m Nexun One systems.

HJT & PERC

Another issue is that 2021 will finally see HJT hitting the market in significant scale, with modules reaching beyond 400Wp.

Some laboratories have put in a lot of work in exotic and complex-to-use algorithms to face the HJT demand and those solutions work up to 300~350Wp panels but may fall short as the power increases.

These new panels, 400Wp HJT Bifacial Half Cut, are reported to require more than 60 flashes on a Pasan system to reach 1.5% accordance between direct and reverse IV while being beyond reach of dynamic IV.

Long pulse HALM shows a reported 60W or 15% deviation.

Thanks to the long pulse and the low impedance load, the Nexun One is able to measure these panels with 0.3% accordance between direct and reverse, in a single flash without the need for special compensation algorithms.

Is the LED spectrum stable?

LED-Based simulator gained worries from the market due to unstable early systems.

LED is not new and exists since 1962. It is a well-understood and researched technology, however, LEDs are as good as the electronics that control them.

LED regulation is not easy and much more complex than Xenon systems. Xenon requires some capacitor, a lamp, and ballast to operate while properly controlled LEDs require a highly accurate current control system for each wavelength and each subpanel. This requires more complex electronics, embedded firmware, and software but once properly done, LEDs show vastly superior performances.

This was proven on the Nexun One with third-party field tests that proved no spectral change over 500’000 flashes while in-flash spectrum drift was also assessed by third-parties and show no significant changes during the long pulse duration over 300 to 1200nm.

How about spectrum peaks & continuity?

The early systems were built with 8 LEDs wavelengths, which allowed them to take advantage of the way the A+ Standard was calculating deviations, ending up in 8 big peak and awful spectral match,

The Nexun One uses 32 independent wavelengths from 300-1200nm with proper light mixing over the whole active area. This generates a spectrum that outmatches any Xenon system both in class, but also in spectral match and deviation (SPD).

What are the advantages of the Nexun One?

The Nexun One is a next-generation LED-Hybrid solar simulator.

LEDs offer multiple advantages:

Spectrum Stability:

On Xenon systems, as the lamp ages, the voltage required by the lamp increases to operate at the same current and irradiance. This effect causes a redshift over the lamp lifetime. The problem is that those systems are often assessed with new flash lamps and labs are often unaware of this drift, however, they do impact the measurement.

The Nexun One shows proven stability over time and within the flash, assessed by third parties.

Uniformity and Size:

While uniformity of Xenon system, especially table becomes exponentially difficult to control as the size increase, the Nexun One matrix design and individually controller sub-panels allows for fine adjustment and stability of the uniformity, no matter the size.

Long Pulse & HJT:

Nexun One long pulse so far has shown to be the only system currently on the market able to measure the highest capacitive module on the market within a single flash, allowing labs to get ahead with tests without the headache of developing complex compensation methods.

Beyond STC, this allows simple temperature coefficient characterization as the single flash ensures no thermal drift during an IV acquisition.

Modular Spectrum:

For years, the lab was stuck with AM1.5. The Nexun One offers the ability to change the spectrum in one click.

From sunrise to sunset, from Abu Dhabi to Canada, from top to bottom junction, you can finally open the door to new services.

State of the art software:

The team at Avalon used to work for prominent laboratories and long time user of many different solar simulators.

We brought our knowledge into Avalon’s software and the result is there. Every time we’ve shown the software to a customer the reaction was “Wow, you can do that?”.

Made by the user, for the user.

Full Auto Thermal Chamber:

The days of wasting time in TC measurements are done. Connect the 8 PT100 probes to the panel, click start and that is all, the chamber will automatically run until the measurements are done.

Bottom Line:

The future of IV Measurement is pretty clear, as LED has replaced the incandescent light bulb, the same will happen for the solar industry, it is only a question of time.

As with any new technologies, it takes some time for the market to grasp the understanding of what LEDs bring.

Many labs, today, are still buying into outdated Xenon technology, that they will need inevitably to upgrade in a few years.

Their decision is based on biased understanding, often driven by marketing teams of Xenon companies. However, data and trends don’t lie.

Final thoughts:

• Does it make sense to buy a 10ms flasher in 2021 as HJT hits the market?

• Does it make sense to buy a large area xenon table in 2021 as standard sizes are already known to be above 1% uniformity?

• Will you able to be competitive with Labs owning a Nexun One?