Experimental Results From Performance Improvement and Radiation Hardening of Inverted Metamorphic Multijunction Solar Cells

Author

Patel, Pragati ; Aiken, Dan ; Boca, Andreea ; Cho, Benjamin Youngjae ; Chumney, Daniel ; Clevenger, M. B. ; Cornfeld, A. ; Fatemi, Navid ; Lin, Yashen ; McCarty, Jessica ; Newman, F. ; Sharps, Paul ; Spann, John ; Stan, Mircea ; Steinfeldt, J. ; Strautin,

Author_Institution

EMCORE Corporation , Albuquerque, USA

Volume

2

Issue

3

fYear

2012

fDate

7/1/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

377

Lastpage

381

Abstract

This paper discusses results from continued development of inverted metamorphic multijunction (IMM) solar cells with air mass zero (AM0) conversion efficiencies greater than 34%. An experimental best four-junction IMM (IMM4J) design is presented. In an effort to improve IMM performance in space radiation environments, 1-MeV electron irradiation studies are conducted on the individual IMM4J subcells. These data are used to engineer an IMM4J structure with beginning of life AM0 conversion efficiency of approximately 34% and an end of life (EOL) remaining factor greater than 82%, where EOL is defined as performance after exposure to 1-MeV electron irradiation at 1E15 e/cm $^2$ fluence. Next-generation IMM designs are explored and an avenue toward AM0 conversion efficiencies of greater than 35% is presented.

Keywords

Electron devices; Gallium arsenide; Indium gallium arsenide; Performance evaluation; Photoelectricity; Photonic band gap; Photovoltaic cells; Electron devices; photoelectricity; photovoltaic cells; semiconductor devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photovoltaics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

2156-3381

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPHOTOV.2012.2198048

Filename

6204303