On the spectral response measurement of multijunction solar cells

Abstract

This work presents particular aspects dealing with the measurement of the spectral response (SR) on multijunction solar cells, a tricky and somewhat complex issue. Here, we demonstrate the development of a facility to measure SR between 300 nm and 1900 nm on III–V solar cells for space applications, particularly oriented to measure large area triple junction (3J) InGaP/GaAs/Ge cells, although it can be utilized to measure other types of devices. The equipment is based on narrowband interference filters and a novel and low cost approach of two dichroic lamps as bias light source, used to select the subcell to be measured using suitable bandpass filters, whereas a simple incandescent halogen lamp is used to generate the monochromatic light beam. The signal is measured on an appropriate resistance inserted in a serial circuit using a lock-in amplifier. Measurement is fully automated, which allows operator independent results. Detailed studies performed on bias spectrum conditions and voltage biasing for these types of cell are showed, as well as a thorough treatment of the uncertainty and measurement error sources. Preliminary SR measurement results demonstrate the good performance of this setup. As an example, the results of the application of this setup to analyze radiation damage induced by 10 MeV protons are shown.

A solar simulator using a LCD projector for students’ laboratory

“…Furthermore, the efficiency of the solar cells achieved by the green, yellow and red illumination color are 14.51%, 12.84%, and 9.05%, respectively. This result agrees with the spectral response of silicontype solar cells [10]. In figure 5, the efficiency (η) and FF of the solar cells are designed counter to illumination color of the light source.…”

“…Quartz tungsten halogen (QTH) lamps, Metal Halide arc lamps, Xenon arc lamps or light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been used as light sources in solar simulators system [7][8][9]. However, recent commercial solar simulators are high cost, need specific skills to use, have a high power consumption, and need additional tools such as spectra filters [7,10]. Therefore, the development of a low-cost, easyto-use solar simulator with integrated spectral filters is essential.…”

A Single Spectral Optical Path Design of the Thermophotovoltaic System for Improving Irradiance Intensity and Uniformity

“…[18][19][20] To improve the efficiency of the TPV system, an effective way is to find a proper device for adjusting the spectrum of radiation between the TPV cell and the emitter. [21][22][23][24][25] The spectral control is an efficient method to adjust the part of the radiation spectrum that cannot be converted into electric power by the cell. For this method, the optical filter is used to reflect the irradiance that cannot be converted into electricity back to the emitter.…”