High efficiency Inverted Metamorphic (IMM) solar cells

Abstract

High efficiency Inverted Metamorphic (IMM) multi-junction solar cells have been under development at Spectrolab for use in space and near space applications This paper reviews the present state-of-the-art of this technology at Spectrolab with an emphasis on performance characterization data at in-flight operating conditions. Large area IMM3J and IMM4J solar cells with 1X AM0 efficiency greater than 32% at 28 °C have been fabricated and characterized. Degradation factors after exposure to 1 MeV electron irradiation for both IMM3J and IMM4J technologies is presented. A coupon utilizing large area, IMM solar cells has been assembled and subjected to thermal cycling. Pre-and post thermal cycling data have been collected. Preliminary temperature cycling data indicate that a small coupon populated with strings of these cells suffered no degradation.