Recent results from the InP homojunction cell module on the LIPS III spacecraft

Author

Brinker, David J. ; Weinburg, I.

Author_Institution

NASA Lewis Res. Center, Cleveland, OH, USA

fYear

1990

fDate

21-25 May 1990

Firstpage

1167

Abstract

The flight performance of the NASA Lewis Research Center´s indium phosphide homojunction solar cell module on the LIPS III spacecraft is presented. Four n⁺-p diffused junction cells, an early product of an InP development program, were flown. The voltage range of the data prohibits determination of the open-circuit voltage or the maximum power point. However, analysis of the 32 months of short-circuit current data reveals a slight increase, not the 4% decrease expected from radiation tolerance studies. This increase may be due to continual cleaning of possible prelaunch dust contamination or changes in data acquisition system calibration. For all cells, the average short-circuit current remains below prelaunch values

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aerospace testing; indium compounds; semiconductor device testing; solar cells; space vehicle power plants; InP solar cells; LIPS III spacecraft; NASA; flight performance; homojunction; satellites; semiconductor device testing; short-circuit current; space power; Calibration; Cleaning; Contamination; Data acquisition; Indium phosphide; Lips; NASA; Photovoltaic cells; Space vehicles; Voltage;

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.1990.111799

Filename

111799