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The purpose of this paper is to minimize and prevent current overloads (including the elimination of abnormal and fire hazardous situations) in photovoltaic solar arrays by using low-cost functional electronic elements, in particular, the new PolySwitch PPTC fuses.

The modeling method has been used to investigate the circuit solution of the use of PolySwitch type fuses to prevent and minimize current overloads in photovoltaic solar arrays.

It is shown that the limitation of the short-circuit current with parallel connection of photovoltaic components (photovoltaic cells or their modules) can be implemented when the following conditions are met: the resistance of the fuse in the conducting state is much lesser than the parallel connection of the series resistances of the photovoltaic components; and the tripping current of the fuse must be greater than the maximum current of the separate photovoltaic components and lesser than the current of a parallel connection of several photovoltaic components.

The influence of the magnitude of the resistance in the conducting state and the response current of the fuses to the current–voltage and volt–watt characteristics of parallel connections of the photovoltaic components (photovoltaic cells or their modules) is analyzed. The modeling results are confirmed by experimental data on the transformation research of light current–voltage and volt–watt characteristics of parallel connections of industrial photovoltaic modules using resettable fuses of the PolySwitch type.

The resistance, capacitance and inductance of anisotropic conductive film (ACF) connections determine their high frequency electrical characteristics. The presence of capacitance and inductance in the ACF joint contributes to time delays and cross‐talk noise as well as simultaneous switching noise within the circuit. The purpose of this paper is to establish an experimental method for estimating the capacitance and inductance of a typical ACF connection. This can help to provide a more detailed understanding of the high frequency performance of ACF assemblies.

Experiments on the transient response of an ACF joint were performed using a digital oscilloscope capable of achieving the required ns resolution. An equivalent circuit model is proposed in order to quantify the capacitance (C) and inductance (L) of a typical ACF connection and this model is fitted to the experimental data. The full model consisted of two resistors, an inductor, and a capacitor.

The capacitance and inductance of a typical ACF connection were estimated from the measured transient response using Kirchhoff's voltage law. The method for estimation of R, L, and C from the transient response is discussed, as are the RLC effects on the high frequency electrical characteristics of the ACF connection.

There was decay time deviation between the calculation and the experiment. It may have resulted from the skin effect in the high frequency response and the adhesive surrounding joint as well. The main reason may be the capacitance zctric lost. Further research work will be done to determine more accurately the dielectric losses in anisotropic conductive adhesive (ACA) joint.

This paper presents a new method to characterise the high frequency properties of ACA interconnections and will be of use to engineers evaluating the performance of ACF materials in high frequency applications.

The purpose of this study is to show that the humidity levels for surface insulation resistance (SIR)-related failures are dependent on the type of activators used in no-clean flux systems and to demonstrate the possibility of simulating the effects of humidity and contamination on printed circuit board components and sensitive parts if typical SIR data connected to a particular climatic condition are available. This is shown on representative components and typical circuits.

A range of SIR values obtained on SIR patterns with 1,476 squares was used as input data for the circuit analysis. The SIR data were compared to the surface resistance values observable on a real device printed circuit board assembly. SIR issues at the component and circuit levels were analysed on the basis of parasitic circuit effects owing to the formation of a water layer as an electrical conduction medium.

This paper provides a summary of the effects of contamination with various weak organic acids representing the active components in no-clean solder flux residue, and demonstrates the effect of humidity and contamination on the possible malfunctions and errors in electronic circuits. The effect of contamination and humidity is expressed as drift from the nominal resistance values of the resistors, self-discharge of the capacitors and the errors in the circuits due to parasitic leakage currents (reduction of SIR).

The methodology of the analysis of the circuits using a range of empirical leakage resistance values combined with the knowledge of the humidity and contamination profile of the electronics can be used for the robust design of a device, which is also important for electronic products relying on low current consumption for long battery lifetime.

Examples provide a basic link between the combined effect of humidity and contamination and the performance of electronic circuits. The methodology shown provides the possibility of addressing the climatic reliability of an electronic device at the early stage of device design by using typical SIR data representing the possible climate exposure.

This paper aims to introduce a new fault protection scheme for microgrid DC networks with ring buses.

It is well recognized that the protection scheme in a DC ring bus microgrid becomes very complicated due to the bidirectional power flow. To provide reliable protection, the differential current signal is decomposed into several basic modes using adaptive variational mode decomposition (VMD). In this method, the mode number and the penalty factor are chosen optimally by using arithmetic optimization algorithm, yielding satisfactory decomposition results than the conventional VMD. Weighted Kurtosis index is used as the measurement index to select the sensitive mode, which is used to evaluate the discrete Teager energy (DTE) that indicates the occurrence of DC faults. For localizing cable faults, the current signals from the two ends are used on a sample-to-sample basis to formulate the state space matrix, which is solved by using generalized least squares approach. The proposed protection method is validated in MATLAB/SIMULINK by considering various test cases.

DTE is used to detect pole-pole and pole-ground fault and other disturbances such as high-impedance faults and series arc faults with a reduced detection time (10 ms) compared to some existing techniques.

Verification of this method is performed considering various test cases in MATLAB/SIMULINK platform yielding fast detection timings and accurate fault location.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce flexible dye-sensitized solar cells (FDSSCs).

In the third generation solar cells, glass was used as a substrate, which due to its high weight and fragility, was not possible to produce continuously. However, in flexible solar cells, flexible substrates are used as new technology. The most important thing may choose a suitable substrate to produce a photovoltaic (PV) device with optimal efficiency.

Conductive plastics or metallic foils are the two main candidates for glass replacement, each with its advantages and disadvantages. As some high-temperature methods are used to prepare solar cells, metal substrates can be used to prepare PV devices without any problems. In contrast to the advantage of high thermal resistance in metals, metal substrates are dark and do not transmit enough light. In other words, metal substrates have a high loss of photon energy. Like all technologies, PV devices with polymer substrates have technical disadvantages.

In this study, the development of FDSSCs offers improved photovoltaic properties.

The most important challenge is the poor thermal stability of polymers compared to glass and metal, which requires special methods to prepare polymer solar cells. The second important point is choosing the suitable components and materials for this purpose.

Dependence of efficiency and performance of the device on the angle of sunlight, high-cost preparation devices components, limitations of functional materials such as organic-mineral sensitizers, lack of close connection between practical achievements and theoretical results and complicated fabrication process and high weight.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the chemical, optical and photovoltaic properties of titanium dioxide/reduced graphene oxide (TiO₂/rGO) photoanodes immersed in natural Roselle and synthetic (N719) dyes for dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) application.

TiO₂ mixed with rGO were doctor-bladed on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrate. The chemical and optical properties of TiO₂/rGO photoanodes immersed in Roselle and N719 dyes were characterized using Fourier-transformed infrared (FTIR) and ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopies, respectively. The DSSC’s photovoltaic performances were tested using Visiontec Solar I-V tester at standard illumination of AM1.5 and irradiance level of 100 mW/cm².

The presence of anthocyanin dye from Roselle flower was detected at 604 nm and 718 nm. TiO₂/rGO+Roselle dye sample revealed the smallest energy gap of 0.17 eV for ease of electron movement from valence band to conduction band. The TiO₂/rGO-based DSSC fabricated with Roselle dye had a power conversion efficiency, ƞ of 0.743 per cent higher than TiO₂/rGO photoanode sensitized with N719 dye (0.334 per cent). The obtained J-V curves were analyzed by a single-diode model of Lambert W-function and manual optimization to determine the internal electrical parameters of the DSSC. The average and uncertainty values of J_sc and ƞ were evaluated at different R_sh range of 1362 Ω to 32 k Ω.

R_s values were kept constant during optimization work.

New ideality factor of TiO₂/rGO-based DSSC was re-determined around 0.9995.

This work aims at constructing a continuous mathematical, linear elastic, model for the thermal contact conductance (TCC) of two rough surfaces in contact.

The rough surfaces, known to be physical fractal, are modelled using a deterministic Cantor structure. Such structure shows several levels of imperfections and including, therefore, several scales in the constriction of the flux lines. The proposed model will study the effect of the deformation (approach) of the two rough surfaces on the TCC as a function of the remotely applied load.

An asymptotic power law, derived using approximate iterative relations, is used to express the area of contact and, consequently, the thermal conductance as a function of the applied load. The model is valid only when the approach of the two surface in contact is of the order of the surface roughness. The results obtained using this model, which admits closed form solution, are displayed graphically for selected values of the system parameters; the fractal surface roughness and various material properties. The obtained results showed good agreement with published experimental results both in trend and the numerical values.

The model obtained provides further insight into the effect that surface texture has on the heat conductance process. The proposed model could be used to conduct an analytical investigation of the thermal conductance of rough surfaces in contact. This model, although simple (composed of springs), nevertheless works well.

The purpose of this study is to create an extended equivalent circuit model for a compound DC motor, consisting completely of electrical parameters and quantities.

The dynamic model of the compound DC motor is obtained by establishing the voltage equations for the armature and excitation circuit and the mechanical equation for the mechanical part. The mechanical parameters in the dynamic model are converted into electrical parameters with an electrical circuit proposed for the mechanical part. By combining the armature and excitation circuits with the electrical circuit created for the mechanical part, the extended equivalent circuit model of the compound DC motor is obtained. Because the proposed extended equivalent model is completely an electrical circuit, simulations can be made in the circuit simulation programme. Simulations of the proposed compound DC motor circuit were carried out, and the accuracy of the proposed circuit was verified by performing experimental studies with an existing compound motor.

When comparing speed and current profiles in experiments and simulations, it is seen that compound DC motor can be modelled with the proposed equivalent circuit including completely electrical elements in a simulation programme for the circuits. The results show that the proposed equivalent circuit satisfies the dynamic model of the compound motor.

In DC machine models, armature and excitation circuits are given as an electrical circuit, and mechanical part of the machine is modelled by only mechanical equations. The originality of this study is converting the dynamic model of an electrical machine consisting of electrical and mechanical equations into a completely electrical circuit. With the proposed method, the dynamic model of many motors can be converted into a completely electrical circuit. In this way, motors can be simulated as an electrical circuit in simulation programmes for the circuits, and the dynamic behaviour of motors can be obtained.

This study aims to present two stage pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor-based low noise amplifier (LNA) designed using low temperature co-fire ceramic (LTCC) technique for ultra-high frequency (UHF) band. The LNA operates in the frequency range of (400∼500) MHz which is suitable for wireless communication applications.

This LNA uses resistive capacitive (RC) feedback in the first stage to have wide bandwidth and interstage network for gain enhancement. By using external RC feedback, stability is improved and noise matching in the input stage is isolated by decoupling inductor. The excellent performance parameters including gain, noise figure (NF), wideband and linearity are attained without affecting the power consumption, compactness and cost of the proposed design.

Simulation is carried out using advanced design software and the result shows that gain of 33.7 dB, NF 0.416 dB and 1 dB compression point (P_1dB) of 18.59 dBm are achieved with a supply voltage of 2.5 V. The return loss of input and output are −19.3 dB and −10.5 dB, respectively. From the above aforementioned parameters, it is confirmed that the proposed LNA is a promising candidate for receivers where high gain and very low NF are always demandable with good linearity for applications operating in the UHF band.

The innovation of the proposed LNA is that the concurrent attainment of high gain, low NF, wideband, optimum input matching, good stability by RC feedback and interstage network using LTCC technique to achieve robustness, low cost and compactness to prove the applicability of design for wireless applications.

Control-signal-to-output-voltage transfer function of the conventional boost converter has at least one right-half plane zero (RHPZ) in the continuous conduction mode which can restrict the open-loop bandwidth of the converter. This problem can complicate the control design for the load voltage regulation and conversely, impact on the stability of the closed-loop system. To remove this positive zero and improve the dynamic performance, this paper aims to suggest a novel boost topology with a step-up voltage gain by developing the circuit diagram of a conventional boost converter.

Using a transformer, two different pathways are provided for a classical boost circuit. Hence, the effect of the RHPZ can be easily canceled and the voltage gain can be enhanced which provides conditions for achieving a smaller working duty cycle and reducing the voltage stress of the power switch. Using this technique makes it possible to achieve a good dynamic response compared to the classical boost converter.

The observations show that the phase margin of the proposed boost converter can be adequately improved, its bandwidth is largely increased, due to its minimum-phase structure through RHPZ cancellation. It is suitable for fast dynamic response applications such as micro-inverters and fuel cells.

The introduced method is analytically studied via determining the state-space model and necessary criteria are obtained to achieve a minimum-phase structure. Practical observations of a constructed prototype for the voltage conversion from 24 V to 100 V and various load conditions are shown.