• Solar Energy
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.137-146
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• 1998

In this paper, the current status of manufacturing technologies for GaAs/Si solar cell were revived and provied new MOCVD. In the manufacturing process of GaAs/Si solar cells and an experiment to get the high efficiency GaAs solar cells, we must investigate the optimum growth conditions to get high quality GaAs films on Si substrates by MOCVD. The GaAs on Si substrates has been recognized as a lightweight alternative to pure substrate for space applicaton. Because its density is less the half of GaAs or Ge.So GaAs/Si has twofold weight advantage to GaAs monolithic cell. The theoretical conversion efficiecy limit of tandem GaAs/Si solar cell is 32% under AM 0 and $25^{\circ}C$ condition. It was concluded that the development of cost effective MOCVD technologies shoud be ahead GaAs solar cells for achived move high efficiency III-V solar cells involving tandem structure.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
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• 1993.05a
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• pp.53-59
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• 1993

The interests on GaAs solar cell grown on Ge substrates as an alternative of GaAs substrate arises from its very close lattice parameters, very small difference in thermal expansion coefficients, and much higher fracture toughness between GaAs and Ge. In addition, for many space power application, it would be a most attractive solar cell with high radiation resistance of GaAs and high reliability for the reverse current damage of Ge, and expecting the theoretical efficiency limit of the tandem GaAs/Ge solar cell is 34% under 1 Sun, AM 0, and 28$^{\circ}C$ condition. In this report, we have reviewed the performance and the manufacturing technics of GaAs/Ge solar cell, and current status of research in GaAs/Ge solar cell.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.34-37
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• 2009

Using six SMD(surface mount device) type AlGaAs/GaAs single junction solar cells connected in series, a power source was fabricated for a white GaN LED. The electrical properties of the power source was measured and analyzed under one sun (100mW/$cm^2$) and various indoor light (300 - 900 lux) conditions. Under 600 lux indoor light condition, output power was 17.06 ${\mu}W$ and it was 30.75 ${\mu}W$ under 900 lux indoor light condition. Using the fabricated solar cell power supply, we have turned on the white GaN LED. It was worked well under 15 ${\mu}W$(at 480 lux) power supplied from solar cell array. This kind of solar cell power supply can be used as a power source for ubiquitous sensor network (USN).

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.26-31
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• 2009

Using MBE growth method, GaAs/AlGaAs solar cell structure was grown. Deposited electrodes are Au/Ni/Ge for n-type and Au/Pt/Ti for p-type electrodes were deposited by E-beam evaporator. Indoor light concentrators were devised and fabricated in order to concentrate artificial solar rays. Also mirror and prism and Fresnel lens concentration system with solar simulator were devised and fabricated. Results of solar cell characteristics were measured with shutting system which can control the amount of light. Maximum power density was 2.13 W/$cm^2$ and maximum concentration was 124 sun, when mirror with Fresnel lens was used at $7854\;mm^2$ of shutter hole.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.73-77
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• 2014

To investigate the effect of metal back-reflective layers (MBLs) on the performance of GaAs solar cells, we fabricated GaAs solar cells on Al and Ag metal layers using the transfer printing technique. We also investigated the effect of MBL texturing on the performance of transfer printed GaAs solar cells. Transfer printed solar cells with MBLs exhibited improved photovoltaic performance compared to solar cells without MBLs due to light trapping. We demonstrated GaAs solar cells with MBLs on a flexible substrate and performed systematic bending tests. All the measured characteristics of solar cells showed little change in performance.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.450-453
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• 2012

In crystalline solar cells, the substrate itself constitutes a large portion of the fabrication cost as it is derived from semiconductor ingots grown in costly high temperature processes. Thinner wafer substrates allow some cost saving as more wafers can be sliced from a given ingot, although technological limitations in slicing or sawing of wafers off an ingot, as well as the physical strength of the sliced wafers, put a lower limit on the substrate thickness. Complementary to these economical and techno-physical points of view, a device operation point of view of the substrate thickness would be useful. With this in mind, BC-BJ Si and GaAs solar cells are compared one to one by means of the Medici device simulation, with a particular emphasis on the substrate thickness. Under ideal conditions of 0.6 ${\mu}m$ photons entering the 10 ${\mu}m$-wide BC-BJ solar cells at the normal incident angle (${\theta}=90^{\circ}$), GaAs is about 2.3 times more efficient than Si in terms of peak cell power output: 42.3 $mW{\cdot}cm^{-2}$ vs. 18.2 $mW{\cdot}cm^{-2}$. This strong performance of GaAs, though only under ideal conditions, gives a strong indication that this material could stand competitively against Si, despite its known high material and process costs. Within the limitation of the minority carrier recombination lifetime value of $5{\times}10^{-5}$ sec used in the device simulation, the solar cell power is known to be only weakly dependent on the substrate thickness, particularly under about 100 ${\mu}m$, for both Si and GaAs. Though the optimum substrate thickness is about 100 ${\mu}m$ or less, the reduction in the power output is less than 10% from the peak values even when the substrate thickness is increased to 190 ${\mu}m$. Thus, for crystalline Si and GaAs with a relatively long recombination lifetime, extra efforts to be spent on thinning the substrate should be weighed against the expected actual gain in the solar cell output power.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.69-74
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• 2019

Spacecraft requires sufficient power in orbit to perform its mission. So as to comply with system requirements, the sufficient power should be made by a solar cell array by photovoltaic power conversion. A life time of space program depends on its mission considering parts reliability and parts grade. Based on the mission life time, power equipment might be designed to meet specifications. In outer space, solar cell array might generate the dc power by photovoltaic conversion effects and GaInP/GaAs/Ge solar cells are used in this study. Space programs that require more than five years should select parts for high reliability applications. Therefore, reliability analysis for high reliability applications should be performed to check its fulfilment of the requirements. This program should also require more five years for its mission and we performed its analysis using parts count method (PCM) for its reliability. Finally, we performed reliability analysis and obtained quantitative figures found out 99.9%. In this study, we presented the reliability analysis of the 300 W GaInP/GaAs/Ge solar cell array.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.438-440
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• 2008

Effects of Ga contents of CIGS absorber layer on the performance of thin films solar cells were investigated. As Ga content increased, the grain size of CIGS films decreased presumably because Ga diffusion during 2nd stage of co-evaporation process is more difficult than In diffusion. Performances of corresponding solar cell show systematic dependence on Ga content in which open circuit voltage increases and short circuit current and fill factor decrease as Ga contents increases. At a optimal condition of Ga/(In+Ga)=0.27, the solar cell shows a conversion efficiency of 15.6% with $V_{OC}$ of 0.625 V, $J_{SC}$ of 35.03 mA/$cm^2$ and FF of 71.3%.

• Solar Energy
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.35-43
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• 1998

In two terminals monolithic tandem solar cells, tunnel diode is an important variable to improve conversion efficiency depending on current matching between the top and the bottom cells. Especially, the GaAs/Ge tandem is one of the most interesting cells for its high potential efficiency. This paper shows that physical analysis about I-V specific character of the GaAs/Ge solar cell, which is grown by MOCVD for GaAs or CVD for Ge, using computer simulation and experimental results, varying with thickness of the tunnel diode layer and concentration.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.929-934
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• 2010

Improvements in characteristics of a single junction AlGaAs/GaAs solar cell are observed by capping a PMMA lens on it. In order to show the effect of the lens, characteristics of a single junction AlGaAs/GaAs solar cell before and after the lens formation are compared under the one-sun illumination condition ($100mW/cm^2$). Characteristics of the solar cell under very weak illumination condition (about 1200 lux) is also measured with the lighting of a fluorescent desk lamp. About 5% of cell efficiency is improved after the capping of PMMA lens on the single junction AlGaAs solar cell and $83\;{\mu}m/cm^2$ of electrical power was generated with the lighting of a desk lamp.