Performance of high-temperature survivable gallium arsenide concentrator cells

Author

Spitzer, Mark B. ; Dingle, J.E. ; Gale, Ronald P. ; Morrison, Richard H.

Author_Institution

Kopin Corp., Taunton, MA, USA

Volume

38

Issue

8

fYear

1991

fDate

8/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1787

Lastpage

1791

Abstract

A report is presented on the fabrication and testing of survivable GaAs/AlGaAs double-heterostructure concentrator cells intended for space operation. Air mass zero (AMO) efficiencies of over 22% at 25 suns have been obtained. These cells are designed to survive thermal excursions to temperatures exceeding 600°C without significant change in efficiency. It is found that the change in conversion efficiency is less than 10%, even after 1 h at 650°C, and that the decrease in efficiency is only about 10% after 25 min at 700°C. The cells continue to function after enduring 820°C for 25 min. Details of the testing are reported

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; solar cells; space vehicle power plants; 22 percent; 25 min; 25 suns; 600 to 820 C; AMO; GaAs solar cells; GaAs-AlGaAs concentrator cells; decrease in efficiency; double-heterostructure concentrator cells; efficiencies; fabrication; high temperature survivable concentrator cells, performance; semiconductors; space operation; survive thermal excursions; testing; Annealing; Contact resistance; Electric resistance; Fabrication; Gallium arsenide; Photovoltaic systems; Solar power generation; Sun; Temperature distribution; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.119015

Filename

119015