COMPUTER EXPERIMENTS ON ARCING PROCESSES AS OBSERVED IN-GROUND TESTS

Experiments with negatively biased solar arrays have shown the edge re gion to be susceptible to arcing. This suggests the possibility of sho rts between the conductive or semiconductive solar-cell edge parts and the conductive carbon fiber substrate through the thin Kapton foil. T he interconnect region appears to be less critical. Computer simulatio ns verify that the electrical characteristics of the solar-cell-Kapton -carbon-fiber substrate interface are sensitive to arcing. Strong diff erential potentials form across the array surface, due to particular c harging processes on the different materials. An avalanche of secondar y processes near the cell-Kapton edge generates an explosive current f low between these neighboring locations on the array. Strong electric fields also form near the cover-glass-interconnect-cover-glass interfa ce, However, the lack of charged particles in the vicinity of this int erface yields rather benign conditions, and hence no energy release.