GaAs solar panels for small satellites: performance data and technology trends

Author

Cross, Trevor A. ; Hardingham, Chris M. ; Huggins, Carlos R. ; Wood, Stephen P.

Author_Institution

EEV Ltd., Chelmsford, UK

fYear

1996

fDate

13-17 May 1996

Firstpage

277

Lastpage

282

Abstract

A high proportion of the microsatellites in the 50 kg-100 kg class have used high efficiency GaAs solar cells. Over the past decade improved GaAs manufacturing technologies have resulted in beginning of life (BOL) air mass zero (AM0) power conversion efficiencies at 25°C increasing from around 16% to around 20%. This paper reports the more than 4 years flight data from the UoSAT-5 together with solar array performance data for several different GaAs solar arrays using GaAs LPE, GaAs MOVPE and GaAs/Ge MOVPE process technology

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; artificial satellites; gallium arsenide; liquid phase epitaxial growth; photovoltaic power systems; semiconductor epitaxial layers; solar cell arrays; solar cells; space vehicle power plants; vapour deposited coatings; vapour phase epitaxial growth; 16 to 20 percent; 25 C; 50 to 100 kg; GaAs; GaAs solar panels; GaAs-Ge; LPE GaAs; MOVPE GaAs; MOVPE GaAs/Ge; UoSAT-5 flight data; air mass zero efficiencies; beginning of life AM0 efficiencies; high efficiency solar cells; microsatellites; performance data; power conversion efficiencies; small satellites; technology trends; Costs; Epitaxial growth; Epitaxial layers; Gallium arsenide; Manufacturing processes; Photovoltaic cells; Power conversion; Satellites; Silicon; Space technology;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1996., Conference Record of the Twenty Fifth IEEE

Conference_Location

Washington, DC

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3166-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1996.564000

Filename

564000