Peeled film GaAs solar cell development

Author

Wilt, D. ; Thomas, R. ; Bailey, S. ; Brinker, D.J. ; DeAngelo, F. ; Fatemi, N. ; Landis, G.

Author_Institution

NASA Lewis Res. Center, Cleveland, OH, USA

fYear

1990

fDate

21-25 May 1990

Firstpage

111

Abstract

Thin-film, single-crystal gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells could exhibit a specific power approaching 700 W/kg including coverglass. A simple process has been described whereby epitaxial GaAs layers are peeled from a reusable substrate. This process takes advantage of the extreme selectivity (>10⁶) of the etching rate of aluminum arsenide (AlAs) over GaAs in dilute hydrofluoric acid (HF). The feasibility of using the peeled film technique to fabricate high-efficiency, low-mass GaAs solar cells is presently demonstrated. A peeled film GaAs solar cell was successfully produced. The device, although fractured and missing the aluminum gallium arsenide (Al_xGa_1-xAs) window and antireflective (AR) coating, has a V_oc of 874 mV and a fill factor of 68% under AM0 illumination

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; epitaxial growth; gallium arsenide; semiconductor device manufacture; semiconductor growth; solar cells; 874 mV; AlGaAs; GaAs; GaAs solar cell; InAlAs; InP; Si; coverglass; development; etching rate; fabrication; fill factor; hydrofluoric acid; peeled films; selectivity; semiconductors; specific power; substrate; Aluminum; Coatings; Costs; Etching; Gallium arsenide; Hafnium; Photovoltaic cells; Silicon; Substrates; Transistors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1990., Conference Record of the Twenty First IEEE

Conference_Location

Kissimmee, FL

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1990.111601

Filename

111601