Thermal runaway in multijunction solar cells

A small fraction of GaInP2/GaAs/Ge triple junction solar cells exposed to the 6× concentrated air mass zero spectrum at 523 K for 5 min was found to be severely shunted afterwards. A combination of electroluminescence imaging and focused ion beam cross sectioning revealed that pre-existing top-middl...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2013-06, Vol.102 (23)
Main Author: Zimmermann, Claus G.
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A small fraction of GaInP2/GaAs/Ge triple junction solar cells exposed to the 6× concentrated air mass zero spectrum at 523 K for 5 min was found to be severely shunted afterwards. A combination of electroluminescence imaging and focused ion beam cross sectioning revealed that pre-existing top-middle cell shunts were responsible for the observed degradation. Joule heating in the shunt resistance limiting Ge substrate is modeled and exhibits a thermal runaway effect above a critical voltage, in agreement with the experimental observation. The implications for current and future multijunction cells are discussed.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.4809952