Ultra high-efficiency advanced triple-junction (ATJ) solar cell production at Emcore photovoltaics

Author

Sharps, P.R. ; Stan, M.A. ; Aiken, D.J. ; Fatemi, N.S. ; Spadafora, F.A. ; Hills, J.S. ; Clevenger, M.B.

Author_Institution

Emcore Photovoltaics, Albuquerque, NM, USA

fYear

2004

fDate

29-31 July 2004

Firstpage

333

Abstract

Emcore Photovoltaics is in volume production of high-efficiency multijunction solar cells for spacecraft applications. Emcore´s latest product is the advanced triple-junction (ATJ) InGaP/InGaAs/Ge solar cell. The ATJ cell exhibits a beginning-of-life (BOL) minimum average conversion efficiency of 27.5%, making it the highest efficiency flight cell available in the market to date. In this paper, the development and manufacturing aspects, as well as, space qualification results at the bare cell and coverglass-interconnected-cell (CIC) levels are presented.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; gallium arsenide; germanium; indium compounds; solar cells; space vehicle power plants; Emcore photovoltaics; InGaP-InGaAs-Ge; bare cell; beginning-of-life; coverglass-interconnected-cell; minimum average conversion efficiency; multijunction solar cells; spacecraft applications; ultra high-efficiency advanced triple-junction solar cell; Electrons; Marine vehicles; Photovoltaic cells; Production; Pulp manufacturing; Qualifications; Reactive power; Space vehicles;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 2002. IECEC '02. 2002 37th Intersociety

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7296-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IECEC.2002.1392037

Filename

1392037