Vibration mechanics research of blocking diodes for space solar array

•A new space blocking diode assembling strategy to fundamentally reduce the weight is proposed.•PI film is introduced as supporting and isolating layer for blocking diodes instead of PCB plate.•No mechanical damages or current decline were found after vibration tests of space blocking diodes. Blocking diodes are important part of space solar arrays, which help keep independent power output for different solar cell strings and avoid reverse charging from battery to solar array. During the launch of satellite, the solar array blocking diodes must withstand high mechanical load, which brings higher requirement for the solar arrays’ reliability. In this article, we performed sinusoidal and random vibration experiments to test the reliability of space blocking diodes with new assembling strategy. The results show that after three axial loading condition of 16 g acceleration sinusoidal vibration and 10.81 g total root mean square random vibration, no mechanical damages or current decline were found within the blocking diodes. Morphology inspection, X-ray detection and forward electrical property were performed proving that the blocking diodes maintain good features under the mechanical vibration condition. This study provides reference for subsequent vibration and mechanical research of blocking diodes for space solar arrays.