Design and production of extremely radiation-hard 26% InGaP/GaAs/Ge triple-junction solar cells

Author

Stan, Mark A. ; Sharps, Paul R. ; Fatemi, Navid S. ; Spadafora, Frank ; Aiken, Dan ; Hou, Hong Q.

Author_Institution

Emcore Photovoltaics, Albuqurque, NM, USA

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

1374

Lastpage

1377

Abstract

The authors report the design and testing of extremely radiation-hard high-efficiency large-area InGaP/GaAs/Ge triple-junction solar cells. The solar cell junctions are designed for longer minority carrier diffusion lengths after particle irradiation. The power remaining factors after 5E14 and 1E15 electrons/cm² 1-MeV electron radiation are 92% and 87.5%, respectively. These results are highest reported to date and are extremely desirable for electrical power design of the spacecraft. Furthermore, the InGaP/GaAs/Ge triple-junction solar cells are currently in production at EMCORE Photovoltaics. Minimum average AM0 efficiency for the large-area fight cells is 26%, with efficiencies as high as 27% demonstrated for a large number of cells

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; carrier lifetime; elemental semiconductors; gallium arsenide; gallium compounds; germanium; indium compounds; minority carriers; p-n heterojunctions; radiation hardening (electronics); solar cells; space vehicle power plants; 1 MeV; 26 percent; 27 percent; InGaP-GaAs-Ge; InGaP/GaAs/Ge triple-junction solar cells; large-area fight cells; minority carrier diffusion length; particle irradiation; power remaining factors; radiation-hard devices; spacecraft power design; Degradation; Electrons; Gallium arsenide; Photovoltaic cells; Production; Radiative recombination; Solar power generation; Space technology; Space vehicles; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2000. Conference Record of the Twenty-Eighth IEEE

Conference_Location

Anchorage, AK

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5772-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2000.916148

Filename

916148