Experimental results from performance improvement and radiation hardening of inverted metamorphic multi-junction solar cells

Author

Patel, Pravin ; Aiken, Daniel ; Boca, Andreea ; Cho, Benjamin ; Chumney, Daniel ; Clevenger, Brad ; Cornfeld, Arthur ; Fatemi, Navid ; Lin, Yong ; McCarty, James ; Newman, Fred ; Sharps, Paul ; Spann, John ; Stan, Mark ; Steinfeldt, Jeff ; Varghese, Tanse

Author_Institution

EMCORE Corp., Albuquerque, NM, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

19-24 June 2011

Abstract

Summary form only given. This paper discusses results from continued development of inverted metamorphic multi-junction (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. This data is used to engineer an IMM4J structure with beginning of life (BOL) 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/cm² fluence. Next generation IMM designs are explored and an avenue toward AM0 conversion efficiencies of greater than 35% is presented.

Keywords

radiation hardening; solar cells; BOL AMO conversion efficiency; EOL; IMM solar cells; IMM4J design; air mass zero conversion efficiencies; electron irradiation study; electron volt energy 1 MeV; individual IMM4J subcells; inverted metamorphic multijunction solar cells; radiation hardening; IEEE Xplore; Next generation networking; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic systems; Radiation effects; Radiation hardening;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2011 37th IEEE

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9966-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2011.6186176

Filename

6186176