Development of 2.7 mil BSF and BSFR silicon wrapthrough solar cells

Author

Mason, A.V. ; Kululka, J.R. ; Bunyan, S.M. ; Woods, L.M.

Author_Institution

SpectroLab. Inc., Sylmar, CA, USA

fYear

1990

fDate

21-25 May 1990

Firstpage

1378

Abstract

The electrical and optical performance of 2.7 mil thick, 8 cm×8 cm silicon wrapthrough solar cells is described. These cells are desirable for spacecraft requiring lightweight, radiation resistant cells. Modeling of the radiation stability of BSF (back surface field) cells indicates that 80% of the power is retained after exposure to 6×10¹⁴ 1 MeV electrons/cm². Modeling performed on the beginning-of-life performance yields an ideal efficiency of 14% for the BSF and 14.7% for the BSFR (back surface field with reflector) cells. The best BSF and BSFR cell efficiencies measured are 13.7% and 14.1%, respectively, at AM0 28°C. It is shown that the difference between the ideal and actual performances is due to series resistance and a higher than expected back surface recombination velocity

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; silicon; solar cells; 13.7 percent; 14.1 percent; 2.7 mm; BSF; BSFR; Si wrapthrough solar cells; back surface field solar cells; back surface field with reflector solar cells; back surface recombination velocity; beginning-of-life performance; electrical performance; optical performance; radiation stability; series resistance; Aluminum; Dielectric substrates; Electrical resistance measurement; Electrons; Metallization; Photovoltaic cells; Predictive models; Silicon; Space stations; Surface resistance;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1990., Conference Record of the Twenty First IEEE

Conference_Location

Kissimmee, FL

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1990.111836

Filename

111836