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Abstract
Four-junction solar cells are being developed for space applications as they promise higher efficiencies compared to the present GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction industry standard. There are multiple technological routes to achieve four-junction cells with the ideal bandgap combination of 1.9 eV, 1.4 eV 1.05 eV and 0.7 eV. This includes metamorphic growth concepts and direct semiconductor wafer bonded technology. All cell designs have their specific advantages and challenges. Therefore, at Fraunhofer ISE a plurality of different four-junction cell concepts is under investigation. The current status of the development and a discussion of so far achieved characteristics are presented in this work.
Highlights
Four-junction cells are being developed as the generation product for space applications to replace today’s triple-junction cells where Ga0.49In0.51P (1.9 eV) and Ga0.99In0.01As (1.4 eV) are grown on Ge (0.7 eV) [13]
Four-junction solar cells are being developed for space applications as they promise higher efficiencies compared to the present GaInP/GaInAs/Ge triplejunction industry standard
The triple-junction cells are well developed and e.g. the 3G30 product provided by AZUR SPACE reaches 29.5% begin-of-life and 26.5% conversion efficiency under end-of-life conditions (1*1015 e-/cm2 1 MeV electron irradiation) [4]
Summary
Four-junction cells are being developed as the generation product for space applications to replace today’s triple-junction cells where Ga0.49In0.51P (1.9 eV) and Ga0.99In0.01As (1.4 eV) are grown on Ge (0.7 eV) [13]. A four-junction inverted metamorphic cell has been introduced as a product by SolAero where 32.7% efficiency is reported at begin-oflive while 26.4% remain after irradiation with 1 MeV electrons with a fluence of 1*1015 e/cm according to the data sheet [6]. This corresponds to a remaining factor in maximum power of 81%. The four-junction cell architecture consisting of GaInP/AlGaAs//GaInAsP/GaInAs has been developed by Fraunhofer ISE, SOITEC and CEA-LETI for the use in terrestrial concentrator systems This solar cell holds the actual record conversion efficiency of 46.0% at 508 suns under the AM1.5d spectrum [15, 16]. Fraunhofer ISE and AZUR SPACE are currently developing more radiation hard designs based on the direct wafer bonding approach
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