Status of Four-Junction Cell Development at Fraunhofer ISE

David, Laurent; Höhn, Oliver; Walker, Alexandre W.; Niemeyer, M.; Beutel, Paul; Siefer, Gerald; Schachtner, Michael; Klinger, V.; Oliva, E.; Hillerich, Karla; Kubera, T.; Guter, W.; Bett, Andreas W.; Dimroth, Frank

doi:10.1051/e3sconf/20171603009

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(25 reference statements)

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“…For these reasons, new fabrication options were developed to use lattice‐mismatched materials: the mechanical stacking method, the metamorphic growth and the wafer bonding. [ 128 ] The former is not commonly used for large‐scale MJSCs production because each subcell has to be grown on a different substrate, which must be afterward removed, making the entire fabrication process more complicated (in particular, each subcell requires its own electrical contact, thus a 3JSC would require six contacts) and expensive (Figure 3c). [ 21 ] The second method overcomes the constraint of using lattice‐matched semiconductors through the deposition of a transparent buffer layer (TBL) between the subcells.…”

Section: Solar Cells Used In Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Energy in Space Applications: Review and Technology Perspectives

Verduci

Romano

Brunetti

et al. 2022

Advanced Energy Materials

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Solar cells (SCs) are the most ubiquitous and reliable energy generation systems for aerospace applications. Nowadays, III–V multijunction solar cells (MJSCs) represent the standard commercial technology for powering spacecraft, thanks to their high‐power conversion efficiency and certified reliability/stability while operating in orbit. Nevertheless, spacecraft companies are still using cheaper Si‐based SCs to amortize the launching costs of satellites. Moreover, in recent years, new SCs technologies based on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) and perovskite solar cells (PSCs) have emerged as promising candidates for aerospace power systems, because of their appealing properties such as lightweightness, flexibility, cost‐effective manufacturing, and exceptional radiation resistance. In this review the current advancements and future challenges of SCs for aerospace applications are critically discussed. In particular, for each type of SC, a description of the device's architecture, a summary of its performance, and a quantitative assessment of the radiation resistance are presented. Finally, considering the high potential that 2D‐materials (such as graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, and transition metal carbides, nitrides, and carbonitrides) have in improving both performance and stability of SCs, a brief overview of some important results concerning the influence of radiation on both 2D materials‐based devices and monolayer of 2D materials is also included.

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Section: Solar Cells Used In Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Energy in Space Applications: Review and Technology Perspectives

Verduci

Romano

Brunetti

et al. 2022

Advanced Energy Materials

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“…These solutions have the drawback of introducing an higher capital cost (CAPEX) for the CPV technology. If the matching constraint is dropped, upright metamorphic four-junction solar cells can be realized by adopting InGaAs as 1 eV material, however this solution requires a careful engineering of the growth process, since crystal defects are inevitably introduced in metamorphic structures [10]. Owing to the fact that its energy gap can be tuned between 0.8 eV and 1.4 eV and it can be grown lattice matched to Ge, SiGeSn has then been considered as an alternative promising 1 eV material [11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MOVPE SiGeSn development for the next generation four junction solar cells

Timò¹,

Abagnale²,

Armani³

et al. 2018

AIP Conference Proceedings

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The Multijunction (MJ) monolithic approach is very attractive for a competitive concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) technology; it has been successfully applied for InGaP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction structures but it is more difficult to be exploited for manufacturing 4-junction solar cells, in particular when III-V and IV elements are both used. So far, the integration of the 1 eV SiGeSn material in the lattice-matched InGaP/GaInAs/Ge triple-junction structure has required the utilization of two different growth apparatus, nearly losing the economic advantage of the monolithic architecture, owing to the related higher capital expenditure. The central technical challenge for realizing InGaP/GaInAs/SiGeSn/Ge solar cell at low cost, with an industrial approach, lies in the growth of III-V and IV elements in the same MOVPE equipment, by solving the "cross contamination" problem among the III-V elements and the IV elements. In this contribution, for the first time, the results of the investigation concerning the growth of SiGe(Sn) and III-V compounds in the same MOVPE growth chamber are presented. The epitaxial layers have been characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, EDX, SIMS and ECV profiling. It is eventually shown that by starting from a modification of the MOVPE equipment and by setting up proper growth condition the contamination of III-V elements in IV based materials can be drastically reduced from 10 20 cm-3 to 2*10 17 cm-3 , while the contamination of IV elements in III-V compounds can be reduced from 4-5*10 17 cm-3 to 6*10 16-3*10 14 cm-3 depending on the substrate used.

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“…T he dilute nitride GaInNAs(Sb) can be grown latticematched (LM) to GaAs (or Ge) substrate with the tunable bandgap as 0.8-1.4 eV, [1][2][3] and it is quite suitable to be introduced between GaAs and Ge subcells in Ge-based multi-junction solar cell (MJSC) for improving the photovoltaic (PV) performance. 4,5) The LM MJSC with dilute nitride junction has been considered as one way to achieve high efficiency, however, the currents of GaInNAs (Sb) subcells are always low due to poor lifetime and short minority-carrier diffusion length (MCDL). 1,6,7) Molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) technology is developed to improve the quality of GaInNAs(Sb) and has obtained remarkable success in dilute nitride PV devices.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

High current of GaInNAs solar cell integrating distributed Bragg reflectors grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

Zhang¹,

Yang²,

Li³

et al. 2021

Appl. Phys. Express

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GaInNAs junctions can be applied to the lattice-matched five-junction (5J) or six-junction (6J) solar cells to achieve ultra-high efficiency. In this work, a GaInNAs solar cell integrating distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR) is grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. According to external quantum efficiency measurements, the photocurrent can be improved by ∼20% due to DBR. Meanwhile, a short-circuit current (J sc ) of GaInNAs DBR-cell is obtained high as 13.78 mA cm −2 under the air mass (AM0) spectrum, which is completely satisfied the demand of 36%-efficiency 5J solar cell (∼ 12 mA cm −2 ). Finally, Dark-IV characteristics reveal that the introduction of DBR does not deteriorate GaInNAs quality.

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Status of Four-Junction Cell Development at Fraunhofer ISE

Cited by 4 publications

References 17 publications

Solar Energy in Space Applications: Review and Technology Perspectives

Solar Energy in Space Applications: Review and Technology Perspectives

MOVPE SiGeSn development for the next generation four junction solar cells

High current of GaInNAs solar cell integrating distributed Bragg reflectors grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy

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