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Direct Bonded Copper (DBC) and InsulatedMetal Substrate (IMS) are commonly used in power electronics. The first is also the state of the art substrate for concentrator photovoltaics (CPV). We developed an alternative structured on IMS and studied its degradation based on IEC standard accelerated ageing tests, namely thermal cycling and damp heat. Receivers were mounted onto a heatsink for the tests. Characterizations were done at several stages of ageing, involving Electroluminescence (EL), Dark-IV (DIV), and Light-IV (LIV). During this study, a new method for the observation of thermal inhomogeneities based on EL has been achieved.

Concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) systems are one of the most promising technologies for future energy supply. Several studies reported the interest of using a Fresnel lens coupled with a secondary optical element in such a system. For high concentration factor, the optimization of the optical configuration plays a key role regarding electrical performances. On the other hand, the thermal management of the solar cell is also critical to ensure a better module efficiency. This paper presents a study of a Â1024 CPV system performances and a methodology for estimating the optical chain efficiency, the cell temperature impact and the alignment requirements. Module efficiencies were then measured as a function of the cell temperature and correlated to optical performances through current-tension characterizations under real solar illumination conditions and the estimation of the power density received by the solar cell. The system yield was up to 27% for a cell temperature around 30 C, confirming that high concentration ratio should be of great interest in the near future. A 1D model was also developed in order to quantify the possible improvements of this CPV system. Using a solar cell with an efficiency of 36.7% at Â600, we then demonstrated that the Â1024 CPV system could reach up to 30% in standard test conditions.