Principles of the radiation damage in solar cells

Although the history of the photovoltaic effect goes back well into the last century, the development of a practical device was initiated at Bell Laboratories in the early 1950´s. Solar cells have been used to power satellites since the Vanguard I in 1958, and this application has presented the problem of radiation damage. The switch from n to p-type substrates around 1960 completed a design which was to change relatively little in the subsequent decade. The author shows how, with some modifications, this design is still in use today, and represents a planar diode structure on a p-type substrate (base), with a diffused n-type layer (emitter). The cell is typically 200 μm thick with contacts at the front and rear, and the cell is covered with a layer of antireflection coating