REVERSE CHARACTERISTIC OF TRIPLE-JUNCTION SOLAR CELLS UNDER DIFFERENT INSOLATION AND TEMPERATURE CONDITIONS

摘要

This work presents the results obtained by a systematic study of a triple junction solar cells reverse biasing. Firstly, the compiled behaviour of the subcells of standard lattice-matched InGaP/InGaAs/Ge triple junction devices under different illumination and temperature conditions was investigated, for both forward and reverse bias up to a reverse voltage of -2.5V avoiding destructive breakdown. Then, the voltage threshold for which any degradation occurs when reverse biasing the triple-junction cell under halogen lamp illumination conditions is determined at different temperature conditions. The reason for performing this test under halogen illumination is to guarantee a limitation of the current by the top cell which is known to be the cell with the lowest reverse breakdown voltage and which is also the current limiting cell under nominal operation under air mass zero (AM0) conditions for most of the mission lifetime.