Title :
High specific power (AlGaAs)GaAs/CuInSe2 tandem junction solar cells for space applications
Author :
Kim, N.P. ; Stanbery, B.J. ; Burgess, R.M. ; Mickelsen, R.A. ; McClelland, R.W. ; King, B.D. ; Gale, R.P.
Author_Institution :
Boeing Electron., Seattle, WA, USA
Abstract :
The authors report the fabrication of a high-efficiency, lightweight GaAs/CuInSe2 tandem cell on a 2-mil-thick substrate, update performance improvements in thin-film GaAs/CuInSe2 tandem cells and discuss their application to space power systems. The efficiency of 4 cm2 GaAs/CuInSe2 tandem cells has improved to 21.6% AM0. This is the highest efficiency ever reported for a thin-film photovoltaic cell. Among the tandem cells fabricated, the efficiencies of the best individual GaAs and CuInSe2 subcells were 19.5% and 3.0%, respectively. Lightweight 4 cm2 tandem cells have been successfully fabricated with efficiencies as high as 20.8%. These cells weighed about 180 mg without optimized substrate trimming. The effects of radiation and operating temperature on GaAs/CuInSe2 tandem cells is also discussed, and an interconnect scheme for forming a voltage-matched circuit of three GaAs cells in parallel and three CuInSe 2 cells in series is proposed
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; copper compounds; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; semiconductor thin films; solar cells; space vehicle power plants; ternary semiconductors; 19.5 percent; 20.8 percent; 21.6 percent; AlGaAs-GaAs-CuInSe2; operating temperature; radiation effects; semiconductor; space applications; space power systems; substrate trimming; tandem junction solar cells; thin film solar cells; voltage-matched circuit; Aerospace electronics; Computational Intelligence Society; Electrodes; Fabrication; Gallium arsenide; Photonic band gap; Photovoltaic cells; Space vehicles; Substrates; Transistors;
Conference_Titel :
Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, 1989. IECEC-89., Proceedings of the 24th Intersociety
Conference_Location :
Washington, DC
DOI :
10.1109/IECEC.1989.74557
