A Solar Simulator usually consists of three components…

With the advent of cells with more than four junctions, the basic design of the TS-Space Systems Unisim range reached its sensible limit. To provide for five and more junctions, the N-zone solar simulator was introduced. This is very sophisticated, and can be used to analyse cells with up to twelve junctions with-out the adjustment of any one junction affecting the other.

The term 'close-match' to describe a solar simulator that attempted to move beyond a single-source design and accurately reproduce the solar reference spectrum was first used in 1997 by Dr Williams from 'TS-Space Systems LTD' when the results from the first ever close-match solar simulator were presented.