ADVANCED THIN-FILM SOLAR CELLS.
Abstract
During this quarter Pt-GaAs cells and other cell structures have been made and investigated to increase their photovoltaic performance. A new Pt-GaAs cell configuration was developed which increased the area utilization factor of current cells to 77%, while future cells to be used in area modules will have an area utilization factor of 87%. In addition, the previously used evaporated Au grid and epoxied Ni ribbon busbar have been replaced by a grid and busbar configuration using evaporated Cu with resultant improvements in cost, cell resistance and solderability. Tooling has been designed and is now under construction for the batch-fabrication of these cells for the array module. Diffused junction cells and Cu-com-pensated GaAs films have been found to provide insufficient improvements, when compared with the basic 2-cm2Pt-GaAs cell, to be used at this time. The cause of the compariatively low efficiencies of current cells has been traced to an unusually high impurity concentration in the GaAs films. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1966
- Accession Number
- AD0483762
Entities
People
- David M. Perkins
- Edward F. Pasierb
- Gerald Noel
- Peter A. Crossley
- William L. Hui
Organizations
- Sarnoff Corporation