Quantifying the Thermal Fatigue of Concentrating Photovoltaic Modules

A method is presented to quantify thermal fatigue in the CPV die-attach from meteorological data. A comparative study between cities demonstrates a signifi cant difference in the accumulated damage. These differences are most sensitive to the number of larger (ΔT) thermal cycles experienced for a location. The method is extended to create lifetime predictions based on accelerated test results. High frequency data (<1/ min) may be required to most accurately employ this method.