Solar

Solar Devices are a wide variety of components that are used in solar power systems. They are used in alternative energy, off-the-grid applications or any product that requires solar power. Solar Cells are semiconductor devices that convert solar radiation into electric power. They do so by the photo-voltaic effect, an electrochemical phenomenon where electrons become excited by absorption of sunlight and leave their orbit. They either dissipate the energy as heat or reduce their potential and return to their orbital by flowing through the electrodes of the cell and the connected circuit. Cells are arranged in arrays to obtain necessary voltage and current characteristics that are referred to as solar panels. Such Panels may contain diodes to ensure current flows in the correct direction and that cells can operate properly in parallel with each other during shadowing effects.

There are special battery charger ICs designed specifically for recharging batteries with a solar power source. Such devices have charging characteristics particular to the battery chemistry utilized and typically need to support a wide voltage range from the solar panels due to the voltage being dependent upon sunlight intensity. Such devices may incorporate different charging modes, and even special charging characteristics to account for battery aging.

Other specialty components associated with Solar include connectors designed to connect directly to solar panels. These are usually extremely rugged, waterproof and designed to handle the extreme conditions possible on a roof of a house or similar environment where solar panels may be employed. Rectifier Diodes are available to enable panels to be able to be connected in parallel without reverse biasing effects caused by shadowing creating issues. Power supply regulators with input voltage specifications aligned with different solar panel configurations are available to convert from the unregulated highly variable DC voltage output of the Panel to a stable regulated voltage.