TECHNOLOGY
DragonSCALES – Continuing to advance the state of the art.
DragonSCALES™
Solar technology has progressed significantly in the last decades. Consequently, the broad availability of low-cost, high-efficiency silicon for residential, commercial and utility scale applications has exploded. In space, satellites were once powered by silicon cells until they were replaced with gallium arsenide (GaAs) technology, dramatically increasing the efficiency and capabilities of satellites.
But, the need for new capabilities has not slowed down.
New commercial satellite constellations like SpaceX, Amazon’s Project Kuiper and others are launching thousands of satellites, and the cost and limited supply capacity of GaAs does not meet these new needs. The explosion of 5G and other communications technologies are driving new Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors, many of which require energy harvesting to support autonomous operation.
Finally, while more and more traditional solar panels are being deployed for homes, businesses and utilities, there is a surging need for portable, flexible and lower weight solutions to provide power for remote off-grid applications.
Download our white paper, "A Revolution in Space Power" to Learn how DragonSCALES is powering a host of space applications.
INTRODUCING DRAGONSCALES
DragonSCALES starts with high-efficiency, state-of-the- art silicon cells that are the product of billions of dollars in R&D investment.
mPower Technology develops and collaborates with leading global research institutes to adapt monocrystalline silicon and other advanced structures to the DragonSCALES architecture. DragonSCALES cells can be customized to any shape and size, and thus easily integrated into any design. Our approach leverages the massive scale of the terrestrial silicon PV market to minimize cost, and eliminate the extremely challenging, hard-to-scale models of custom cell manufacturing. For space applications, mPower has developed fabrication approaches to maximize end-of-life performance in harsh space environments with on-orbit radiation recovery.
DragonSCALES Modules
Our high-efficiency, advanced back contact silicon cells form the “engine” of the DragonSCALES module and are interconnected in series and parallel using the latest advanced semiconductor type assembly processes. These modules can be customized to any shape, thickness, voltage, size, material stack and other design considerations to meet application-specific requirements at the lowest cost. The ability to leverage existing semiconductor type processes reduces risk and cost and allows DragonSCALES to scale to megawatts of delivered power.
DragonSCALES –
ContinuING To Advance THE STATE OF THE ART
The unique architecture of DragonSCALES and the merging of photovoltaic and semiconductor technologies and processes opens new opportunities for innovation. mPower continues to advance its product portfolio including advanced cell structures pushing efficiency to unprecedented levels, advanced power management architectures and other techniques to mitigate end-of-life degradation.
Supply Chain and Manufacturing
mPower Technology is leveraging its manufacturing capabilities with world-class fabrication partners.
Our current manufacturing capacity is 50 kW/year and is currently being expanded to 200 kW/yr. Our state-of-the-art production facility is 100% automated and leverages silicon terrestrial PV cells and microelectronics assembly processes and materials. For large-scale deployments, we can scale up to 1.5 MW/year per line, expand to 100’s MW/year with relatively small manufacturing investments.
Custom Design Services
mPower provides design services to meet the needs of the space and terrestrial solar market, including:
- DragonSCALES layout and schematics
- Power analysis – mission specific
- Atomic oxygen analysis
- Failure mode effect analyses
- Magnetic moment analysis
- ESD mitigation
- Radiation analysis
- Add-on mass analysis