The Solar Charging Backpack

Ali Nahm

1 Abstract

This project was to build a solar backpack, an idea suggested by my

ASR teacher, Dr. Dann. The backpack would store energy from solar
cells placed on its exterior, which could then be used to charge people’s
electronic devices, such as a cellphone or iPod. It’s always frustrating
when one cannot contact friends because of a dead phone and there
is no place nearby to charge it. This problem could easily be solved by
making this portable charging station. Moreover, this project is one
way to apply green technology to an everyday problem. I incorrectly
assumed that solar energy can only be generated through giant panels
located in the middle of hot deserts. When preparing for my M-BEST
workshop on green technology in January 2011, I learned that solar
energy can also be captured through small solar cells that can fit in the
palm of my hand. I thought it was so cool that power can be generated
from such a small, thin object. I’d be exploring a new method of
powering things, which is important since non-renewable energy
sources, such as coal and oil, are being depleted quickly.

The goal of this project is to learn more about building circuits,

especially learning how to build a circuit that can store energy and then
pass the energy on to an electronic device in controlled amounts so
that the device does not break from getting too much power. Another
goal of the project is to learn more about solar energy and how solar
cells work. It will be important to think about the placement of the
solar cells on the backpack to maximize energy, but also minimize the
chances of damage.

This paper was written for Dr. James Dann’s Applied Science
Research class in the spring of 2011.
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2 Introduction

Where does energy come from? Energy is used to power complicated

machines in human society and cars, as well as everyday objects
including cellphones and calculators. Most of the energy that powers
society comes from fossil fuels, nonrenewable energy sources including
coal and oil. [1] This is a problem because fossil fuels supplies are
constantly decreasing in the world, and soon there won’t be anything
left to convert to energy. Moreover, the use of fossil fuels causes large
carbon emissions, which increases the effects of global warming and
pollutes the air. Global warming is a serious issue; the polar ice caps
on Earth are melting, and there is an increased probability of intense
droughts and heat waves. [2] Air pollution is also problematic. Poor air
quality can lead to serious respiratory diseases and cancer. [1] Luckily,
there is an alternative method for generating energy: renewable energy
sources, such as the sun, wind, tides, and geothermal activity. Granted,
the initial cost of renewable energy systems can be expensive. However,
renewable energy has no environmental or health effects.

In this context, solar cells are very relevant, as they could replace coal
and oil and become the world’s main energy source. Solar power is the
best developed modern energy technology so far. [3] Energy from the
sun is free and plentiful. More than 6,000 times the total amount of
energy used by the entire planet in a whole year reaches the Earth in
one day. [4]

There are some problems with the current, most widely-used solar
cells. The common solar cells are extremely fragile, as they are covered
by glass protectors, and expensive, as it costs a fair amount to produce
that much silicon. Thin-film solar cells are becoming more popular, as
they are much thinner, more durable, and cheaper than regular solar
cells. Unfortunately, thin-film solar cells do have a downside: they have
approximately a 10% efficiency rate, whereas regular solar cells have on
average a 20% efficiency rate. [5]

Most homes with solar panels are owned by people of high

socioeconomic status, who can make the large initial investment.
Cheaper solar cells can make renewable energy sources more accessible
 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 81

to people of different socioeconomic backgrounds. For instance, solar

cellphones are popular among African farmers. [6] Farmers can find
out the latest market prices on crops, talk to buyers from the fields,
and get weather forecasts from their solar cellphones. In addition, they
don’t need to worry about running out of battery power. Developing
countries, such as many in Africa and Central America, don’t have
electricity grids providing everyone with energy whenever they need
it. These people may have access to the technology, such as a cellphone
or a television, but the country’s infrastructure isn’t strong or advanced
enough to provide an electricity grid to power the device. A New York
Times article on mobile phones in Africa elucidates this problem. The
story discusses how Laban Rutagumirwa, a Ugandan banana farmer, is
forced to charge his cellphone with a car battery in his dirt-floor home
in the remote hills of western Uganda. [7] If he had an inexpensive,
portable charging station like the one in my project, he would be more
successful in his job. This simple idea can have so many positive effects
on others.

3 History of Solar Energy

Solar energy has been known and used throughout history. Going
all the way back to the seventh century BC, the ancient Greeks and
Romans used glass to concentrate the sun’s rays to make small fires. [8]
Solar energy wasn’t considered a major power source until the 1860s,
when Auguste Mouchout of France developed the technology to turn
solar energy into mechanical steam power in order to operate the first
steam engine. [9] Unfortunately, coal was a cheaper fuel source for
the steam engine, so his alternative energy system no longer received
funding from the French monarch, and solar energy research was put
on hold for a while. In the 1870s and 1880s scientists Charles Fritts and
Willoughby Smith experimented a little bit with the use of solar cells
coated in the semiconductor material selenium. [10]

However, it wasn’t until 1905, when Albert Einstein made a

breakthrough in science and clearly described the photoelectric
effect, that the main theory behind photovoltaic cells was known.
[11] Scientists began trying to develop practical uses for this theory.
In 1941, Russell Ohl invented the first silicon solar cell. [10] Shortly
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afterward, in 1954, Calvin Fuller, Gerald Pearson, and Daryl Chaplin

of Bell Laboratories invented another type of silicon solar cell that
had an efficiency rate of 6%. [9] All solar cells before the one built by
Fuller, Pearson, and Chaplin had an energy conversion less than 1%, so
their solar cell was truly revolutionary. Their solar cell became the first
commercial solar cell made available to the public in 1956, at a very
expensive price of $300 per watt. [9]

Even though non-renewable resources, such as oil, coal, and gas, were
cheaper, solar cell technology didn’t die out as it did in France in the
late 1800s. The photovoltaic cell industry continued to prosper due to
the growing satellite industry at the time. [12] Solar energy was the
only fuel source option for satellites up in space. As a result, in 1958,
the Vanguard I was the first orbiting vehicle to be powered by solar
energy. [11]

Now, the global solar cell industry has been growing by 25% per year
for two main reasons. In 1960, Hoffman Electronics increased the
efficiency of the commercial solar cell to about 14%. And recently,
researchers have been able to develop cells to almost 20% efficiency
rates. [11] Moreover, in the 1970s, Dr. Elliot Berman was able to design
a less expensive solar cell, bringing the price of a commercial solar
cell from $100 per watt to $20 per watt. [11] This allowed solar cells
to be used in many more practice applications such as with railroads,
lighthouses, off-shore oil rigs, buoys, and remote homes.

4 Theory

4.1 Physics Equations on Circuits

This project requires a lot of knowledge of electrical circuits. The two

most basic equations on circuits are Ohm’s Law and the equation for
power. Ohm’s Law states that the total voltage is the product of the total
current and total resistance (V = IR). Voltage is the electrical potential
energy difference per unit test charge. Current is the amount of charge
per unit time. Resistance is how much the electrons are being slowed
down through the circuit. The power equation states that power
 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 83

generated by the circuit is the product of the total current and the total
voltage (P = IV). [13]

Parts of a circuit can be hooked up together in two different ways: in

series or in parallel. When a circuit is hooked up in series, the current
and charge are the same for each section of the circuit, but the voltage
drop is different. When a circuit is hooked up in parallel, the current
and charge are different for each parallel strand, but the voltage drop
is the same.

Figure 1: An example of a series circuit on the left [14] and a parallel circuit on
the right. [15]

Based on these attributes of series and parallel circuits, we can derive

the equations for finding the total resistance in a circuit. The total
resistance in a series circuit is   . The total resistance in
a parallel circuit is   . Sometimes, a circuit can be
composed of sections hooked up in series, as well as sections hooked
up in parallel. To find the total resistance, a combination of the two
equations must be used. [13]

4.2 Scientific Explanation of Project

4.2.1 Capacitors

Capacitors store electric charge. They are measured by capacitance, the

ability to store charge. Farads (F) are the units of capacitance. The main
equation regarding capacitors is that the total charge being held by one
plate of the capacitor is the product of its capacitance and the voltage
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(Q = CV). Capacitors are composed of two conductors of varying

shape and size, called plates. A capacitor is charged if the plates carry
equal and opposite charges of +Q and –Q. [16]

A resistor-capacitor circuit (RC circuit) is used to charge or discharge

a capacitor. When a battery or other power supply is connected to the
RC circuit, the capacitor is charging. The charge at time (t) is given by
the equation:
 

where ε is the electromotive force (emf), or actual voltage coming from

the power supply. This equation makes sense, as when t gets closer to
infinity, the capacitor reaches its maximum charge of εC. When the
circuit is only composed of a capacitor and a resistor, the capacitor is
discharging. The charge at time (t) is given by the equation:

where qo is the maximum charge of the capacitor before it began to lose

charge. This equation is reasonable, as when t gets closer to infinity, the
capacitor’s charge is close to zero. [17]

One special kind of capacitor is an electric double-layer capacitor

(EDLC), which is also known as an ultracapacitor. Unlike a regular
capacitor with two plates, EDLCs have two layers of the same substrate.
The first layer, the surface charge, is composed of ions absorbed by the
object. The second layer, the diffuse layer, is made of free ions that
move in the fluid due to the electric field. These two layers make up
the “electrical double layer” of the substrate, resulting in separation
of charge between the layers. The two layers are separated by a thin
physical barrier a couple of nanometers wide.
 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 85

Figure 2: Diagrams comparing two different types of capacitors. [19] The object
on the left is a “normal” capacitor. The object on the right is an electric double-
layer capacitor.

EDLCs can only withstand low voltages, but they have much higher
power densities than batteries. Power density is determined by the
energy density with the speed that the energy can be delivered. Batteries
have higher energy densities than EDLCs. However, batteries have
slow charge and discharge times compared to capacitors. Therefore,
the power density of EDLCs is generally 10 to 100 times as great as that
of batteries. [15]

4.2.2 Rechargeable Batteries

Batteries, also called galvanic cells, are devices powered by an electric

current that is produced by a chemical oxidation-reduction reaction.
In this reaction, the oxidizing agent, the anode, is separated from the
reducing agent, the cathode, forcing the electrons to travel through a
wire from the reducing agent to the oxidizing agent. This apparatus also
needs an electrolyte buffer that only allows ions to pass. An electrolyte
buffer is necessary to maintain the charge of the anode and cathode to
be neutral as the electrons are travelling through the wire between the
two substances. [16]

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Figure 3: Diagram of a battery. [22]

A rechargeable battery is composed of the same three materials

as a normal battery: an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte buffer.
[18] However, these batteries are different because their oxidation-
reduction reactions are electrically reversible through a process called
electrolysis. The electrical energy from a battery charger forces the
current to flow in the opposite direction, from the oxidizing agent to
the reducing agent. This forced current converts the reduced anode
and the oxidized cathode back into their original states. [16]

There are many different combinations of chemicals to create a

rechargeable battery, such as the lead-acid battery and the lithium ion
battery. [18] The rechargeable battery being used in the experiment
is a nickel metal hydride battery (NiMH). The cathode of the battery
is nickel oxyhydroxide, and the anode is a metal hydride, which is a
chemical compound that consists of metal elements and hydrogen.
[19] The electrolyte is usually potassium hydroxide in these batteries.
[20] When the NiMH battery is powering something, there are two
 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 87

separate chemical reactions occurring. In the cathode, the following

reduction reaction occurs:

Ni(OH)2 + OH- → NiOOH + H2O + e- [19]

In the anode, the following oxidation reaction occurs:

M + H2O + e- → MH + OH- [19]

(Note: M is the hydrogen absorbing alloy, and MH is the unknown

metal hydride being used by the battery.) One can combine these two
reactions into one general equation:

Ni(OH)2 + M → NiOOH + MH [19]

When the NiMH battery is recharging, the three reactions are reversed.
The products of the reaction become the reactants, and the reactants
become the products.

Figure 4: Diagram of a NiMH rechargeable battery charging. [16]
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4.2.3 Solar Cell

A solar cell converts solar energy into electrical energy. There are three
steps a solar cell undergoes. [22] First of all, the photons in the form
of sunlight hit the solar cell, which is covered by the semiconductor
silicon. When a photon hits a piece of silicon, one of three things can
occur depending on the energy in the photon: [23] the photon reflects
off the surface, the photon passes through the silicon, or the photon is
absorbed by the silicon. [22]

Only a small percentage of the photons reflect off the surface, as the
solar cells have an antireflective coating. [23] The inefficiency of solar
cells mainly comes from the other two options, accounting for 70%
of the energy lost. [23] Silicon has a band gap energy of about 1.1 eV,
meaning that the photons must have at least that amount of energy
to be absorbed. If the photon doesn’t have enough energy, it passes
through the silicon. If the photon has more than the band gap energy,
the extra energy is lost.

If the photon is absorbed by the silicon, an electron is knocked loose

from the silicon atom structure. This generates an electron-hole and a
free electron that can move within the solar cell. An electron-hole is a
missing covalent bond on an atom that used to connect an electron to
the atom. The bonded electrons of neighboring atoms shift to fill the
electron-hole, thus creating another electron-hole in a different section.
In this sense, the electron-hole is moving through the solar cell.

Simultaneously, the electrons are moving within the network of silicon

atoms in the solar cell. However, due to the two different layers of
silicon in the solar cells, the electrons can only move in one direction.
There are two different types of silicon atoms, N-type and P-type
silicon. N-type silicon is impure silicon doped with phosphorus,
causing it to have more free electrons. As a result, N-type silicon is
a better conductor than pure silicon. P-type silicon is impure silicon
doped with the element boron, causing it to have more free openings
to hold electrons. [23]
 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 89

When N-type silicon and P-type silicon interact, the free electrons
from the N-type silicon rush to fill the free electron-holes in the P-type
silicon. However, not all of the free electrons fill the electron-holes in
the P-type silicon. Some of the free electrons form a barrier at the
junction, the space between the N-type and P-type silicon. This barrier
creates an electric field, which is a diode that allows electrons to flow
from the P-type silicon to the N-type silicon, but not the other way
around. [23] Since the electrons are moving from the P-type silicon to
the N-type silicon, the electron-hole moves in the opposite direction.

Figure 5: Diagram of a Solar Cell. [29] The diagram includes the cross-section
of the cell, which shows the N-type silicon, the P-type silicon, and the junction.
The diagram also shows the direction of the electron flow and the electron-hole
movement.

An external circuit is created that connects the N-type silicon to

the P-type silicon. The electrons will flow through the path to the
P-type silicon to fill the holes that moved down there. The flowing
electrons will create a current through the circuit, and the solar cell’s
electric field causes a voltage. Power can be determined by taking the
product of these two values. [22] When multiple solar cells are used
simultaneously, enough solar energy can be converted into a reasonable
amount of direct current (DC) electricity.
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This experiment uses thin-film amorphous silicon photovoltaics. [25]

The large solar panels that are found on buildings’ roofs and deserts
use crystalline silicon (c-Si), which is a group of silicon atoms bonded
to four neighboring silicon atoms, creating a well-organized crystal
pattern. Amorphous silicon (a-Si) is a group of silicon atoms randomly
bonded together, creating a disorganized pattern.

Figure 6: Diagrams comparing the two different structures of silicon. [26]

Crystalline silicon is shown on the left, and amorphous silicon is shown on
the right.

Both types of silicon, c-Si and a-Si, can be doped with phosphorus and
boron to create P-type and N-type layers of silicon. Because a-Si can
have more concentrated silicon randomly bonded together, a-Si layers
can be much thinner than c-Si. [27] This causes solar cells made of a-Si
to be very thin and flexible.
 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 91

5 Experimental Design

5.1 Diagrams

Figure 7: View of the Sketchup drawing of the experimental setup of my project.

The drawing is of the backpack with thin-film solar cells (in light grey) attached
on the outside and a pouch (in darker grey) in the front to hold the electronic
equipment. Dimensions can also be seen in the Sketchup drawing.
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Figure 8: Another view of the Sketchup drawing of the experimental setup of

my project.
 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 93

Figure 9: Diagram of the entire circuit of the project.

Figure 10: Diagram of the voltage regulator circuit.

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5.2 Photographs

Figure 11: Photograph of the actual circuit used in the prototype for this project.
It includes the small multimeter used to measure the voltage across the two
ultracapacitors, the voltage regulator circuit, and the Blackberry phone that
is being charged. Note that the multimeter and the circuit can fit in the white
cardboard box also included in the picture, which fits in the backpack front pouch.
 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 95

11)

Figure 12: Photograph of the entire prototype with all the major sections of
the project labeled.

6 Results: Specifications of Individual Parts

6.1 Temporary Charging Device

For the month of January, I worked on measuring the different aspects

of the ultracapacitor, the normal capacitor, and the rechargeable
battery in order to compare them.
96 Ali Nahm

Figure 13: Photo of the three charging devices that I used for my project: a
capacitor, a 2.5 V ultracapacitor, and a rechargeable battery.

Figure 14: Photo of the second 2.7 V ultracapacitor that was tested and eventually
used in this experiment.
 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 97

I measured the voltage and current, as well as the mass, of each charging
device to compare the data of each device with the others. To measure
voltage, I put the two multimeter leads on the corresponding leads
on the charging device and put it on the voltage setting. To measure
current, I hooked up the charging device to a 1 Ω power resister and
measured the voltage across the resistor to calculate the current using
Ohm’s Law (V=IR), which was explained in section 4.1 of this paper.

Charging Measured Measured Measured Mass Charge-to-

Device Current Voltage Charge (C) (g) Mass Ratio
(A) (V) (C/g)
Capacitor 1.36 2.52 0.77744 3.7 0.21
2.5 V 1.52 4.52 302.4 26.87 11.25
Ultracapacitor
2.7 V 2.04 3.20 80 6.99 11.44
Ultracapacitor
NiMH battery 1.56 2.53 1366.2 56.41 24.22

Figure 15: Data table of the measured current, voltage, charge, and mass to help
compare the three different charging devices. Moreover, it includes the charge-to-
mass ratio, which is the charge of the device divided by the total mass.

Sample calculation of Charge-to-Mass ratio for a capacitor:

Charge-to-Mass Ratio =   =   = 0.21 C/g

Moreover, I calculated the charge of each device based on the expected

values given on the data sheets of the products. As described in section
4.2.1 of this paper, charge is the product of capacitance and voltage
(Q=CV). A sample calculation for the expected charge of the capacitor
is shown below.

Q = CV = (0.172 F)(5 V) = 0.86 C

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Charging Device Expected Expected Voltage Expected Charge

Capacitance (F) (V) (C)
Capacitor 0.172 5 0.86
2.5 V 120 2.5 300
Ultracapacitor
2.7 V 25 2.7 67.5
Ultracapacitor
NiMH battery 2.4 6480
Figure 16: Data table of expected charge. The expected charge values were based
on the expected capacitance and expected voltage values given in the specification
sheets in the packaging of the three different charging devices.

For the second part of the month, I built a circuit to regulate the output
voltage of the system. Depending on the setting on the potentiometer
(also known as a variable resistor), the circuit can regulate the output
voltage anywhere between 1.2 V to 37 V. The circuit diagram can be
seen earlier in the paper in Figure 10.
 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 99

Potentiometer Output Voltage Expected Voltage Percent

Resistance (in Ωs) (in V) (in V)* Difference
1 1.272 0.01 22287
149.9 2.11 0.85 148
205.7 2.43 1.17 108
258.7 2.74 1.47 86
296.5 2.76 1.68 64
341.8 3.22 1.94 66
451 3.81 2.56 49
987 6.45 5.61 15
1526 8.16 8.67 6
2035 9.35 11.56 19
2570 10.34 14.60 29
3042 11.04 17.28 36
3523 11.62 20.02 42
4090 12.17 23.24 48
4590 12.61 26.08 52
5050 12.95 28.69 55

Figure 17: Data table of expected and actual output voltage for the voltage
regulating circuit.

*To calculate the expected voltage, the following equation was found
on the back of the packaging for the voltage regulator:

 
For instance, the calculations for the expected voltage when the
potentiometer is 1 Ω are shown below:

Note: I arbitrarily decided to use a 220 Ω in the R1 position in my circuit.

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Figure 18: Scatter plot of the actual output voltage measured in the experiment
versus the voltage, as well as the expected voltage versus the voltage. Note that the
expected voltage data points have a more linear relationship, whereas the actual
voltage data points have a more logarithmic relationship.

I decided to use a 550 Ω resistor as my R2 resistor in my voltage regulator

circuit. When I varied the input voltage from 5 V to 10 V, the output
voltage remained constant at 4.52 V. This meant the voltage regulator
circuit was doing its job in maintaining the output voltage to the phone
at the correct output such that the phone doesn’t get damaged.

6.2 Thin-film Solar Cells

The first experiment was to compare the voltage and current generated
by a single thin-film solar cell depending on the angle to the light
source. This would help plan out the placement of the solar cells on
the backpack.

 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 101

Angles (in degrees) Voltage (in V) Current (in A)* Power (in W)**
90 3.37 0.015 0.051
80 3.42 0.012 0.041
70 3.39 0.010 0.034
60 3.39 0.009 0.031
50 3.41 0.007 0.024
40 3.23 0.005 0.016
30 2.85 0.004 0.011
20 2.71 0.002 0.005
10 2.66 0.003 0.008
0 1.76 0.000 0.000

Figure 19: Data table of power generated by a single thin-film solar cell with
varying angle of elevation of the solar cell with respect to a 40 W light source.

*The current was measured by measuring the voltage across a 1 Ω resistor.

**The power was calculated using the physics equation P=IV (see
section 4.1). For instance, to calculate the power generated by a solar
cell 0 degrees to the sun:

P = IV = (0.015 A)(3.37 V) = 0.051 W

I then ran a linear regression of the relationship between the solar cell’s
angle to sun and the power generated by the cell, and found the least
squares regression line to be:

 
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Figure 20: Graph of power generated by solar cell versus angle to sun.

Figure 21: Residual plot of the relationship between the power generated by solar
cell versus angle to sun, where a residual is the difference of the observed value and
the predicted value. Since the data points are randomly spaced around the center
line of y = 0, it can be assumed that there was little experimental error in this
specific section.

Then, a linear regression hypothesis test for slope was performed

based on the null hypothesis being that the slope is equal to 0 and the
alternative hypothesis being that the slope is not equal to 0. The test
statistic, t, is calculated to be 15.16 with 8 degrees of freedom (two less
than the sample size). If the null hypothesis was true and the sampling
process was performed repeatedly, the probability of getting the same
slope in this experiment or more extreme would be less than 0.01%.
 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 103

This mini-experiment was helpful to me because it told me that the

data was indeed statistically significant and that there is a correlation
between the angle of the solar cell and the power generated. As a result,
I designed the backpack to have solar cells on only the front face, since
that is the section of the backpack most likely to be 90 degrees from the
sun. Most of the time, people set down their backpacks face-up, so the
solar cells can generate the maximum power.

For the next experiment, six thin-film solar cells were hooked up
into six different situations (A through F). These circuits’ voltage and
current were compared when they were set flat on a table about a foot
underneath a 40 W light bulb.

Figure 22: Circuit diagrams of the six different possibilities of combining six
thin-film solar cells.
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Type of Circuit Voltage (V) Current (A) Power (W)

A 22.1 0.006 0.1326
B 3.82 0.035 0.1337
C 7.47 0.016 0.11952
D 11.25 0.01 0.1125
E 11.3 0.012 0.1356
F 7.45 0.013 0.09685
Figure 23: Data table of the measured voltage of a series circuit and a parallel
circuit with two thin-film solar cells.

Figure 24: Graph of the power generated by the arrangement versus the measured
voltage of each solar cell arrangement.

6.3 Blackberry Bold

This prototype was built specifically to charge a Blackberry Bold model

9780, which is a fairly typical smartphone in use right now. According
to the transformer attached to the phone charger into the wall socket,
the maximum voltage for this phone is 5 V, and the maximum current
for this phone is 0.75 A. However, for this project, I want to maximize
 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 105

efficiency since the solar cells are so inefficient, so I proceeded to find

the minimum voltage and current needed to charge the phone.

To do this, I connected the phone to a power supply and started at 5

V and 0.75 A inputted into the phone. The next time, I lowered the
current by about 0.05 A and checked in an hour if it had charged. The
phone stopped charging at a current of 0.25 A. At that time, the voltage
reading was 4.2 V, so I’m assuming that that value is the minimum
voltage for the phone.

7 Conclusion

A portable charging station was built for this project. The prototype
was composed of 12 solar cells Velcroed onto a backpack that charges
up to two 2.7 V ultracapacitors. Then, when the ultracapacitors are
fully charged, a switch is flicked, and then the phone is charged.
Overall, this project took three months and about $20. To put it into
perspective, other backpacks of a similar kind have been made and are
being sold commercially for about $200 dollars. [35]

This project had three main components to it. The first component
was the voltage regulating circuit. A lot of testing and research was
done on capacitors, ultracapacitors, and rechargeable batteries to
determine the most ideal object to store charge temporarily between
the solar cells and the cellphone. The second component was the solar
energy concept. Because solar cells are still fairly inefficient sources of
energy, much time was spent in understanding how to maximize the
power out of these thin-film solar cells. Experiments were performed
to further understand the effects of the position of the individual cell
relative to the sun and the arrangement of multiple cells. This resulted
in the conclusion that, ideally, the cells need to be 90 degrees to the
sun and in a certain combination of parallel and series. The third and
final component was the cellphone, specifically the Blackberry Bold.
Research and testing was done in order to determine the maximum
voltage and current needed to charge the phone. This way, the phone
would not be harmed in the process of experimenting and in the final
product. Also, an experiment was performed to find the minimum
voltage and current to charge the phone to maximize efficiency. These
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two pieces of data on the cellphone were used to finalize the voltage
regulating circuit such that the voltage and current output of the circuit
would be very similar to what the cellphone needs to charge.

In the end, a working final product was created. However, there are
still ways the project could be improved. It would be nice to use a
potentiometer instead of a specific 550 Ω resistor, so that the user
can change the output voltage setting and charge different devices. To
increase the power generated to charge the device, more solar cells
need to fit onto the backpack, or more efficient solar cells need to be
used on the backpack.

Personally, I’m really proud of my project. Green technology, especially

solar energy, is becoming more and more important in our society, and
I’m glad I got a chance to learn more about it with this project. I also
realized how much I truly love to build circuits. And in the end, I now
have a cool backpack to use in college next year to charge a device
while I’m walking around.

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[13] David Halliday, Robert Resnick, and Kenneth S. Krane,

“Electric Potential Energy and Potential,” Physics, 5th Edition, 2002.

[14] Gregory Shepertycky, “Physics Tutorial: Series Circuits and

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 THE MENLO ROUNDTABLE 109

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9 Acknowledgements

Although it was hard sometimes, I was able to pull through and

successfully complete my project, eventually leading to a successful
circuit. I couldn’t have done it without the ever-so-handy multimeter
telling me where my circuit is broken and the positive encouragement
of my classmates and teacher. Dr. Dann not only gave me the original
idea, but he also was extremely helpful in patiently debugging my
circuit in class. I thank Austin Tamoddon and Keegan Williams for
their willingness to lend me an extra hand or spend a couple of minutes
helping me think through something, even though they had their
own difficult projects to work on. Geoffrey Lalonde was extremely
helpful in constantly challenging me to be more knowledgeable about
my project, instead of settling for less and making a “less awesome
project.” And finally, Serena Gupta was the most helpful for constantly
supporting me and putting a smile on my face even when I thought I
had no chance in making it through.