Research Summaries

Back The Design and Fabrication of a Novel High Efficiency Flexible Single Junction GaAs BAC Solar Cell for Space Environment Application

Fiscal Year 2019
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Electrical & Computer Engineering
Investigator(s) Michael, Sherif N.
Sponsor Department of Defense Space (DoD)
Summary Silicon has dominated all-back-contact (ABC) solar cell research since Lammert and Schwartz introduced their novel design in 1975; however, GaAs – despite its higher cost – exhibits at least five major advantages over silicon that make it worthy of consideration: namely, higher efficiency, a thinner bulk, superior low-light and high-temperature performance, and radiation- hardened characteristics suitable for space application. This research presents the first, in-depth look at GaAs for ABC cell design. We begin by developing benchmark models in Silvaco®AtlasTM to match a calibrated, thin-film GaAs cell and a silicon ABC cell. Then, a third model is developed to match four verified parameters (VOC, ISC, FF, ?) of a high-efficiency, front- emitter GaAs cell. Finally, the emitter of the third model is moved to the back of the cell while holding other variables constant. We noted a significant improvement of ISC and FF which boosts model efficiency from 28.7% to 30.6%.This research effort is proposed for the design, modeling and prototype fabrication of the novel state-of-the-art space-based solar cells. The design of this novel cell was made possible using the newly developed method for modeling any type of solar cell using the SILVACO/ ATLAS Virtual Wafer Fabrication software that was previously developed at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS). Taking into account the high cost of research and experimentation involved with the development of advanced cells, this novel methodology was developed. In our opinion, the introduction of this modeling technique to the Photovoltaic community will prove to be of great importance in aiding in the design and development of improved advanced solar cells.
Keywords Photovoltaic Prototype Radiation Solar cells design optimization high efficiency space environment
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal