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Development of advanced Si and GaAs solar cells for interplanetary missionsThe deep space and planetary exploration project have been acquiring more and more importance and some of them are now well established both in ESA and NASA programs. This paper presents the possibility to utilize both silicon and gallium arsenide solar cells as spacecraft primary power source for missions far from the Sun, in order to overcome the drawbacks related to the utilisation of radioisotope thermoelectric generators - such as cost, safety and social acceptance. The development of solar cells for low illumination intensity and low temperature (LILT) applications is carried out in Europe by ASE (Germany) and CISE (Italy) in the frame of an ESA programme, aimed to provide the photovoltaic generators for ROSETTA: the cometary material investigation mission scheduled for launch in 2003. The LILT cells development and testing objectives are therefore focused on the following requirements: insolation intensity as low as 0.03 Solar Constant, low temperature down to -150 C and solar flare proton environment. At this stage of development, after the completion of the technology verification tests, it has been demonstrated that suitable technologies are available for the qualification of both silicon and gallium arsenide cells and both candidates have shown conversion efficiencies over 25% at an illumination of 0.03 SC and a temperature of -150 C. In particular, when measured at those LILT conditions, the newly developed 'Hl-ETA/NR-LILT' silicon solar cells have reached a conversion efficiency of 26.3%, that is the highest value ever measured on a single junction solar cell. A large quantity of both 'Hl-ETA/NR-LILT' silicon and 'GaAs/Ge-LILT' solar cells are presently under fabrication and they will be submitted to a qualification test plan, including radiation exposure, in order to verify their applicability with respect to the mission requirements. The availability of two valid options will minimize the risk for the very ambitious scientific project. The paper describes how the technical achievements have been possible with Si and GaAs LILT solar cells (including a comparison between measured and modelled l-V characteristics) and it presents the technology verification tests results.
Document ID
19960007878
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Strobl, G.
(Amgewandte Solar Energie G.m.b.H. Heilbronn, Germany)
Uegele, P.
(Amgewandte Solar Energie G.m.b.H. Heilbronn, Germany)
Kern, R.
(Amgewandte Solar Energie G.m.b.H. Heilbronn, Germany)
Roy, K.
(Amgewandte Solar Energie G.m.b.H. Heilbronn, Germany)
Flores, C.
(Centro Informazioni Studi Esperienze Milan, Italy)
Campesato, R.
(Centro Informazioni Studi Esperienze Milan, Italy)
Signorini, C.
(European Space Agency. European Space Research and Technology Center ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands)
Bogus, K.
(European Space Agency. European Space Research and Technology Center ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands)
Date Acquired
September 6, 2013
Publication Date
October 1, 1995
Publication Information
Publication: NASA. Lewis Research Center, Proceedings of the 14th Space Photovoltaic Research and Technology Conference (SPRAT 14)
Subject Category
Spacecraft Propulsion And Power
Accession Number
96N15044
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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