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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 523 records · Page 29
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Exploring the Performance and Reliability of Screen-Printable Fire-Through Copper Paste on PERC Solar Cells

In this work, we present the performance and reliability of a fire-through copper (Cu) paste which has been screen printed on c-Si solar cell with passivated emitter rear contact (PERC). The Cu paste is fired through silicon nitride (SiN) anti-reflection coating at a peak temperature of 630 degrees C . SEM images of the Cu paste show a Cu core with ~200 nm oxide shell around the particles. This conductive oxide layer acts as a diffusion barrier between Cu and Si and prevents the degradation of cell performance during accelerated aging conditions. An efficiency of 19.250% has been achieved with Voc=654mV,FF= 76.68%, Jsc=38.40 m.A/cm 2 for champion PERC cells. Accelerated testing of the PERC mini-modules in damp heat chamber with 85 degrees C and 85% humidity have demonstrated that the devices are operational even after 1,500 hours. Devices with screen printed Ag contacts on the front side have been studied in parallel to the Cu contacts for comparison.

copper↗
DOE OSTI2015

Reliability of emerging bonded interface materials for large-area attachments

In this study, conventional thermal interface materials (TIMs), such as greases, gels, and phase change materials, pose bottlenecks to heat removal and have long caused reliability issues in automotive power electronics packages. Bonded interface materials (BIMs) with superior thermal performance have the potential to be a replacement to the conventional TIMs. However, due to coefficient of thermal expansion mismatches between different components in a package and resultant thermomechanical stresses, fractures or delamination could occur, causing serious reliability concerns. These defects manifest themselves in increased thermal resistance in the package. In this paper, the results of reliability evaluation of emerging BIMs for large-area attachments in power electronics packaging are reported. Thermoplastic (polyamide) adhesive with embedded near-vertical-aligned carbon fibers, sintered silver, and conventional lead solder (Sn 63 Pb 37 ) materials were bonded between 50.8 mm x 50.8 mm cross-sectional footprint silicon nitride substrates and copper base plate samples, and were subjected to accelerated thermal cycling until failure or 2500 cycles. Damage in the BIMs was monitored every 100 cycles by scanning acoustic microscopy. Thermoplastic with embedded carbon fibers performed the best with no defects, whereas sintered silver and lead solder failed at 2300 and 1400 thermal cycles, respectively. Besides thermal cycling, additional lead solder samples were subjected to thermal shock and thermal cycling with extended dwell periods. A finite element method (FEM)-based model was developed to simulate the behavior of lead solder under thermomechanical loading. Strain energy density per cycle results were calculated from the FEM simulations. A predictive lifetime model was formulated for lead solder by correlating strain energy density results extracted from modeling with cycles-to-failure obtained from experimental accelerated tests. A power-law-based approach was used to formulate the - redictive lifetime model.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗
DOE OSTI2024

Photovoltaic Inverter Failure Mechanism Estimation Using Unsupervised Machine Learning and Reliability Assessment

This article introduces a data-driven approach to assessing failure mechanisms and reliability degradation in outdoor photovoltaic (PV) string inverters. The manufacturer's stated PV inverter lifetime can vary due to the impact of operating site conditions. To address limitations in degradation estimation through accelerated testing, condition monitoring, or degradation modeling, we propose a machine learning (ML) oriented approach. Utilizing data from a 1.4 MW PV power plant operational since 2016, with 46 string PV inverters tied to the grid, we employ the unsupervised one-class support vector machine ML technique to analyze inverter and sensor data, capable of classifying humidity cycling and temperature fluctuations as dominant failure mechanisms. Utilizing the anomaly alert relationship and alert details specific to the inverter, the level of PV inverter output is considered as its availability or available reliability. Subsequently, a continuous Markov model is applied to six-month alert data, revealing an average stated reliability of 20% after 20 years of continuous operation. These results support recommendations for time-bound preventive measures to enhance PV inverter reliability under diverse outdoor conditions. Furthermore, the approach provides a nondestructive, top–down, and generalized method for analyzing any commercial PV inverter exposed to outdoor conditions, contingent on the availability of relevant data.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Temporal Stability of Magnetization of ε-In{sub 0.24}Fe{sub 1.76}O{sub 3} Nanoparticles

The kinetics of spontaneous demagnetization in nanoparticles of the exotic epsilon-phase of indium-doped iron(III) oxide (ε-In{sub 0.24}Fe{sub 1.76}O{sub 3}) has been studied using the method of accelerated testing of magnets for temporal stability in a magnetization-reversal field. Time dependences of the magnetization of nanoparticles measured in a wide range of magnetic fields exhibited rectification in semilogarithmic coordinates. The dependence of the magnetic viscosity on the magnetic field has been measured and used for determining the fluctuation field and activation volume. A relationship between the magnetic viscosity and magnetic noise caused by random thermoinduced magnetization reversal in separate nanoparticles is established.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2019

Simulation of the CBETA 4-pass FFAG ERL using field maps — exclusively

The Cornell-BNL Electron Test Accelerator (CBETA), a four-pass, 150 MeV energy recovery linac (ERL), is now in construction at Cornell. Commissioning commenced on March 2019. A particularity of CBETA is that a single channel loop recirculates the four energies (42, 78, 114 and 150 MeV). The return loop arcs are based on fixed-field alternating gradient (FFAG) optics. The loop is comprised of 107 quadrupole-doublet cells, built using Halbach permanent magnet technology. Spreader and combiner sections (4 independent beam lines each) connect the 36 MeV linac to the FFAG arcs. We introduce here a start-to-end simulation of the 4-pass ERL, based entirely, and exclusively, on the use of magnetic field maps to model the optical components.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2025

Nature of innovations affecting photovoltaic system costs

Innovations improve technology costs through various kinds of engineering advancements, including changes to materials choices and device or process designs. Understanding how these innovations relate to cost change can reveal aspects of the process of technology evolution, yet developing such understanding is often not possible with a strictly quantitative approach due to data limitations. In this paper we develop a hybrid quantitative-qualitative framework for relating specific innovations to cost change by using the variables in a quantitative technology cost change model as an organizing principle. We demonstrate this framework by applying it to the cost decline in photovoltaic (PV) systems over the last five decades. This framework generates new understanding of a set of innovations that contributed to PV modules’ sustained cost decline and the more modest trends observed in balance-of-system (BOS) costs. The results show the great diversity of innovations that affected PV costs, drawing on wide-ranging fields of expertise within scientific research and practice. We find that there are differences in the characteristics of innovations that reduced the cost of PV modules compared to innovations influencing BOS costs. Numerous module innovations reduced costs by advancing manufacturing tools and processes that improved material quality. Many BOS innovations reduced costs through a combination of component design changes, integration, automation, digitalization, and standardization. Overall, most innovations in our sample affected PV hardware. However, some also target ‘soft technologies’ such as task durations through innovations like fast-track permitting, which require improved collaboration and process streamlining. This framework also provides insight into the nature of knowledge spillovers between technologies. Both module and BOS hardware innovations show the benefits of PV’s position within an ‘ecosystem’ of continuously advancing technologies in many industries, in particular semiconductors and electronics, and also point to the importance of public institutions for accelerating testing, permitting, and training.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Electron Cooling With Space-Charge Dominated Proton Beams at IOTA

We describe a new electron cooler being developed for 2.5 MeV protons at the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA), which is a highly re-configurable storage ring at Fermilab. This system would enable the study of magnetized electron cooling in the presence of intense space-charge with transverse tune shifts approaching -0.5 as well as highly non-linear focusing optics in the IOTA ring. We present an overview of the design, simulations and hardware to be used for this project.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Measurement of Stability Diagram at IOTA at Fermilab

Nonlinear focusing elements can enhance the stability of particle beams in high-energy colliders by means of Landau Damping, through the tune spread which is introduced. We propose an experiment at Fermilab’s Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) to investigate the influence of nonlinear focusing elements on the transverse stability of the beam. In this experiment, we employ an anti-damper, an active transverse feedback system, as a controlled mechanism to induce coherent beam instability. By utilizing the anti-damper, we can examine the impact of the nonlinear focusing element on the beam’s transverse stability. The stability diagram, a tool used to determine the system’s stability, will be measured using a recently demonstrated method at the LHC. This measurement is carried out experimentally by selecting specific threshold gains and measuring them for a range of phases. The stability diagram is represented by gei¿ on the complex plane. The experiment at IOTA adds insight towards the stability diagram measurement method by supplying a reduced machine impedance, to investigate the impedance’s effect on the stability diagram, as well as a larger range of phase measurements.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Gas Jet Profile Monitor for Use in IOTA Proton Beam

The Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) Facility will attempt to demonstrate novel techniques for high current accelerators. An electron beam of 150 MeV/c momentum and a proton beam of 70 MeV/c momentum will be used for a number of experiments, including nonlinear focusing integrable optics, space charge compensation, and optical stochastic cooling. The low energy proton beam will provide a space charge dominated regime with which to investigate Hamiltonian diffusion and chaos. A non-invasive beam instrumentation device is needed to study emittance evolution and halo formation without destroying the beam. A supersonic gas jet curtain can be injected perpendicular to the proton beam, which will preserve the integrity of the beam and provide a two-dimensional turn-by-turn profile measurement. Currently, IOTA and the gas jet monitor are being built and commissioned at Fermilab.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Beam Instrumentation at the Fermilab IOTA Ring

The Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) is a storage ring located at the end of the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology (FAST) facility. The complex is intended to support accelerator R&D for the next generation of particle accelerators. The IOTA ring is currently operating with 100 MeV electrons injected from the FAST Linac and will also receive 2.5 MeV protons from the IOTA Proton Injector currently being installed. The current instrumentation and results from the first electron commissioning run will be presented along with future plans.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Transverse Beam Emittance Measurement by Undulator Radiation Power Noise

Generally, turn-to-turn power fluctuations of incoherent spontaneous synchrotron radiation in a storage ring depend on the 6D phase-space distribution of the electron bunch. In some cases, if only one parameter of the distribution is unknown, this parameter can be determined from the measured magnitude of these power fluctuations. In this contribution, we report the results of our experiment at the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) storage ring, where we carried out an absolute measurement (no free parameters or calibration) of a small vertical emittance (5–15 nm rms) of a flat beam by this new method, under conditions, when the small vertical emittance is unresolvable by a conventional synchrotron light beam size monitor.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Proposed Longitudinal Profile Diagnostics for Optical Stochastic Cooling of Stored Electrons in the IOTA Ring

One of the predicted signatures of successful optical stochastic cooling (OSC) in the Fermilab Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) ring is reduction of the bunch length. The IOTA OSC experiment is designed for a low nominal beam current (~0.1 microAmps of 100-MeV electrons) to reduce intrabeam scattering (IBS), and during cooling, OSC is expected to reduce the bunch length from ~200 ps to ~130 ps*. These equilibrium bunch lengths can be measured using a streak camera and the optical synchrotron radiation (OSR) generated in a ring dipole by the circulating beam. A similar measurement was previously performed at the Advanced Photon Source with a Hamamatsu C5680 synchroscan streak camera operating at 117.3 MHz**. In this case, synchronous summing of OSR resulted in a bunch length measurement of 276 ± 30 ps using only 57 electrons circulating at 425 MeV. At IOTA, an existing streak camera has been modified to operate at the 11th harmonic of the ring’s revolution frequency of 7.50 MHz and has been installed on an OSR port in support of the OSC experiments. The integrated system will have sufficient sensitivity and resolution for measuring the evolution and equilibrium values of the bunch length during OSC experiments.

Lumpkin, Alex H.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Statistical Properties of Undulator Radiation

Two experiments were carried out to study the statistical properties of undulator radiation in the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) storage ring at Fermilab. The first experiment studied the turn-to-turn fluctuations in the power of the radiation generated by an electron bunch. The magnitude of these fluctuations depends on the 6D phase-space distribution of the electron bunch. In IOTA, we demonstrated that this effect can be used to measure some electron bunch parameters, small transverse emittances in particular. In the second experiment, a single electron was stored in the ring, emitting a photon only once per several hundred turns. In this regime, any classical interference-related collective effects were eliminated, and the quantum fluctuations could be studied in detail to search for possible deviations from the expected Poissonian photon statistics. In addition, the photocount arrival times were used to track the longitudinal motion of a single electron and to compare it with simulations. This allowed us to determine several dynamical parameters of the storage ring such as the rf cavity phase jitter and the dependence of the synchrotron motion period on amplitude.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2014

SRF Systems for ASTA at Fermilab

The Advanced Superconducting Test Accelerator (ASTA) at Fermilab now being commissioned is comprised of a number of superconducting RF systems including single-cavity cryomodules and a TESLA/ILC style 8-cavity cryomodule. Two of them, 'Capture Cavity 2' and 'Cryomodule 2', have been cooled to 2 Kelvin and brought into operation. We provide an overview of the unique characteristics of each of the systems, commissioning experience, and latest results including their respective operating characteristics.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Light Optics for Optical Stochastic Cooling

In Optical Stochastic Cooling (OSC) radiation generated by a particle in a "pickup" undulator is amplified and transported to a downstream "kicker" undulator where it interacts with the same particle which radiated it. Fermilab plans to carry out both passive (no optical amplifier) and active (optical amplifier) tests of OSC at the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA) currently in construction*. The performace of the optical system is analyzed with simulations in Synchrotron Radiation Workshop (SRW) accounting for the specific temporal and spectral properties of undulator radiation and being augmented to include dispersion of lens material.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2018

Simulations of Optical Stochastic Cooling with ELEGANT

Fermilab is pursuing a proof-of-principle test of the Optical Stochastic Cooling (OSC) of 100 MeV electrons in the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator. In support of this we present simulations of horizontal damping with OSC. We find excellent agreement with theory on the amplitude dependent damping rates. Additionally particle tracking is used to confirm the necessity and effectiveness of sextupoles used to correct non-linear path lengthening in the OSC chicane.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2019

Synchrotron Radiation Beam Diagnostics at IOTA - Commissioning Performance and Upgrade Efforts

The Integrable Optics Test Accelerator is a research electron and proton storage ring recently commissioned at the Fermilab Accelerator Science and Technology facility. A key part of its beam diagnostics suite are synchrotron radiation monitors, used for measuring transverse beam profile, position, and intensity. In this paper, we report on the performance and uses of this system during the year 1 run. We demonstrate sub-100nm statistical beam position uncertainty and high dynamic range from 10⁹ electrons down to a single electron. Commissioning challenges and operational issues are discussed. We conclude by outlining current upgrade efforts, including improved modularity, small emittance measurements, and a multi-anode photomultiplier system for turn-by-turn acquisition.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗
DOE OSTI2021

IOTA Run 2 Beam Dynamics Studies in Nonlinear Integrable Systems

Nonlinear integrable optics is a promising design approach for suppressing fast collective instabilities. To study it experimentally, a new storage ring, the Integrable Optics Test Accelerator (IOTA), was built at Fermilab. IOTA has recently completed its second scientific run, incorporating many hardware and instrumentation improvements. This report presents the results of the two integrable optics experiments - the quasi-integrable Henon-Heiles octupole system and the fully integrable Danilov-Nagaitsev system. We demonstrate tune spread and dynamic aperture in agreement with tracking simulations, and a stable crossing of the integer resonance. Based on recovered single-particle phase space dynamics, we show improved invariant jitter consistent with intended effective Hamiltonian. We conclude by outlining future plans and efforts towards proton studies and larger designs.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗