Geometrical design of thin film photovoltaic modules for improved shade tolerance and performance

Partial shading in photovoltaic modules is an important reliability and performance concern for all photovoltaic technologies. In this paper, we show how cell geometry can be used as a design variable for improved shade tolerance and performance in monolithic thin film photovoltaic modules (TFPV). We use circuit simulations to illustrate the geometrical aspects of partial shading in typical monolithic TFPV modules with rectangular cells, and formulate rules for shade tolerant design. We show that the problem of partial shading can be overcome by modifying the cell shape and orientation, while preserving the module shape and output characteristics. We discuss two geometrical designs with cells arranged in radial and spiral patterns, which (i) prevent the reverse breakdown of partially shaded cells, (ii) improve the overall power output under partial shading, and (iii) in case of spiral design, may additionally improve the module efficiency by reducing sheet resistance losses. We compare these designs quantitatively using realistic parameters and discuss the practical aspects for their implementation. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interconnecting networks with optimized service provisioning

Telecommunication Systems - A recent trend of peering at geo-diversified Internet exchange points (IXPs) has empowered decades-old proposal of inter-networking and opened up new avenues of business...     

Structural,Thermal and Luminescence Properties of AlN:Tm Thin Films Deposited on Silicon Substrate and Optical Fiber

Semiconductors - Thin films of AlN:Tm are deposited on a Si(111) and Si(100) substrates and optical fiber by rf magnetron sputtering method. 200–400 nm thick films are deposited at various...     

Sustainable Green Fog Computing for Smart Agriculture

Wireless Personal Communications - Medical Body Area Networks or MBANs are gaining popularity in healthcare circles because of the convenience they provide to patients and caregivers and assist in...     

CuPc based organic--inorganic hetero-junction with Au electrodes

In present work, a hetero-junction of n-silicon (n-Si) with copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) has been fabricated. The current-voltage characteristics were investigated to explain the rectification and conduction mechanism. The effect of temperature and humidity on electrical properties of n-Si/CuPc hetero-junction has also been investigated. The characteristics of the junction have been observed to be temperature and humidity dependent so it is suggested that this junction can be used as temperature and humidity sensor.     

Search me if you can: Multiple mix zones with location privacy protection for mapping services

The mobile vehicle is gaining popularity nowadays using map services like Google Maps and other mapping services. However, map services users have to expose sensitive information like geographic locations (GPS coordinates) or address to personal privacy concerns as users share their locations and queries to obtain desired services. Existing mix zones location privacy protection methods are most general purposed and theoretical value while not applicable when applied to provide location privacy for map service users. In this paper, we present new (multiple mix zones location privacy protection) MMLPP method specially designed for map services on mobile vehicles over the road network. This method enables mobile vehicle users to query a route between 2 endpoints on the map, without revealing any confidential location and queries information. The basic idea is to strategically endpoints to nearby ones, such that (1) the semantic meanings encoded in these endpoints (eg, their GPS coordinates) change much, ie, location privacy is protected; (2) the routes returned by map services little change, ie, services usability are maintained. Specifically, a mobile client first privately retrieves point of interest close to the original endpoints, and then selects 2 points of interest as the shifted endpoints satisfying the property of geoindistinguishability. We evaluate our MMLPP approach road network application for GTMobiSim on different scales of map services and conduct experiments with real traces. Results show that MMLPP strikes a good balance between location privacy and service usability.     

Identification of a class of two CFOA-based sinusoidal RC oscillators

Using a unified representation for a class of the two current-feedback operational amplifier (CFOA) sinusoidal oscillators, new circuits of this type can be systematically discovered. A catalogue of two circuit structures, each structure realizing 18 oscillator circuits, is presented. Moreover, using the RC:CR transformation, additional 18 oscillator circuits can be obtained from each structure. A third structure realizing additional two oscillator circuits is also presented. Some of the circuits enjoy one or more of the following attractive features: use of grounded capacitors, feasibility of absorbing the parasitic components of the CFOAs, availability of a buffered output voltage and orthogonal tuning of the frequency and the startup condition of oscillation. Moreover, it is shown that the use of the Barkhausen criterion for the determination of the startup condition of oscillation and the frequency of oscillation yields inaccurate results with relatively large errors depending on the selected component values. Furthermore, it is shown that using the roots of the characteristic equation of a specific oscillator structure will result in a startup condition that cannot be adjusted without disturbing the frequency of oscillation.     

An Efficient,Scalable Key Transport Scheme (ESKTS) for Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networks

In the past, security protocols including key transport protocols are designed with the assumption that there are two parties communication with each other and an adversary tries to intercept this communication. In Delay/Disruption Tolerant Networking (DTN), packet delivery relies on intermediate parties in the communication path to store and forward the packets. DTN security architecture requires that integrity and authentication should be verified at intermediate nodes as well as at end nodes and confidentiality should be maintained for end communicating parties. This requires new security protocols and key management to be defined for DTN as traditional end-to-end security protocols will not work with DTN. To contribute towards solving this problem, we propose a novel Efficient and Scalable Key Transport Scheme (ESKTS) to transport the symmetric key generated at a DTN node to other communicating body securely using public key cryptography and proxy signatures. It is unique effort to design a key transport protocol in compliance with DTN architecture. ESKTS ensures that integrity and authentication is achieved at hop-by-hop level as well as end-to-end level. It also ensures end-to-end confidentiality and freshness for end communicating parties. This scheme provides a secure symmetric key transport mechanism based on public key cryptography to exploit the unique bundle buffering characteristics of DTN to reduce communication and computation cost .     

Current mode biquadratic filter realizations employing operational amplifiers

New circuit configurations for realizing current mode biquadratic filter sections using operational amplifiers are presented. Each circuit uses a single operational amplifier and seven passive elements at most. The merits and demerits of the proposed realizations are discussed.