RELIABILITY AND DEGRADATION OF HIGH CONCENTRATOR GaAs SOLAR CELLS

摘要

High efficiency high concentrator (above 1000X) solar cells are emerging as a real alternative for dropping PV costs. Present work summarises the results of a set of experiments developed to asses the main degradation mechanisms affecting those devices. These experiments include humidity resistance tests; thermal cycling tests carried out in humid environments (RH ≈ 30%) and forward biasing of the solar cells at elevated current densities. In general, the results of these tests show that GaAs solar cells are rugged devices capable of achieving long lifetimes without significant losses in performance.