Design and Performance of High Efficiency III-V Space Solar Cells with Monolithic Bypass Diode Architecture

Author

Stan, M. ; Aiken, D. ; Clevenger, B. ; Cornfeld, A. ; Doman, J. ; Downard, E. ; Hills, J. ; Hoffman, R. ; Johnston, G. ; Newman, F. ; Pappan, J. ; Sandoval, A. ; Sharps, P. ; Wood, J., Jr.

Author_Institution

EMCORE Photovoltaics, Albuquerque, NM

Volume

2

fYear

2006

fDate

38838

Firstpage

1865

Lastpage

1868

Abstract

This year Emcore expects to begin shipment of its BTJ and BTJM high efficiency triple junction (3J) solar cell products. The former is the 3J without a monolithic bypass diode and the latter with a monolithic bypass diode. A 1 sun AM0 efficiency of 28.5 % characterizes pilot production performance of the BTJ product. Radiation qualification tests of the BTJ cell indicate radiation hardness comparable to the ATJ cell. The addition of the monolithic bypass diode adds both complexity and additional design flexibility to the BTJ cell. Analysis of the bypass diode characteristics for one BTJM cell product is presented. These data indicate that the bypass diode is transparent to the performance of the BTJ 3J cell. Several BTJM cell builds have been completed with a median 1 sun AM0 efficiency of 28.5 %

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; radiation hardening (electronics); semiconductor device testing; semiconductor diodes; semiconductor junctions; solar cells; space power generation; AM0 efficiency; BTJ triple junction solar cell products; BTJM triple junction solar cell products; high-efficiency III-V space solar cells; monolithic bypass diode architecture; radiation hardness test; Diodes; III-V semiconductor materials; Manufacturing; Photonic band gap; Photovoltaic cells; Production; Qualifications; Solar power generation; Sun; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, Conference Record of the 2006 IEEE 4th World Conference on

Conference_Location

Waikoloa, HI

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0017-1

Electronic_ISBN

1-4244-0017-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WCPEC.2006.279858

Filename

4060024