When the limitations of silicon are highlighted gaas is a good direction.
Gaas solar panel.
Gallium arsenide gaas is the highest performance solar material currently available boasting conversion efficiencies in excess of 40 nearly double those of crystalline silicon.
The average size of solar panels used in a rooftop solar installation is approximately 65 inches by 39 inches or 5 4 feet by 3 25 feet.
In a recent article in the magazine electronic news gallium arsenide was tested on a germanium substrate.
All solar cells include the latest triple and quadruple junction technology where gainp gaas ge layers are grown on a germanium substrate and the whole product range benefits from many years experience on the space market.
Cubesat gaas solar panel nanoavionics gaas triple junction gainp gainas ge epitaxial structure solar arrays are made of high performance triple junction space grade solar cells that enable missions with high power requirements.
Spectrolab offers a range of gainp gaas ge lattice matched 3j solar cells with efficiencies reaching 32.
The resulting efficiency level was 24 9 for a single junction.
This makes them a good candidate for a stacked type of solar panels used for collecting light from all across the spectrum.
This is a superior property of gallium arsenide.
But they are unbeatable for their efficiency even at high temperatures and concentrated sunlight.
Spectrolab manufactures and tests fully integrated solar panels for commercial civil and defense missions.
Gallium arsenide is an important semiconductor material for high cost high efficiency solar cells and is used for single crystalline thin film solar cells and for multi junction solar cells.
Gaas circuits and devices are far more expensive than silicon and they require their own manufacturing process so you won t find them in typical consumer solar panels.
Spectrolab offers a range of gainp gaas ge lattice matched 3j solar cells with efficiencies reaching 32.
All 3j technologies are fully aiaa s111 and s112 qualified.
Azur space has already delivered over 1 5 million triple junction gaas solar cells to a wide range of customers.
Unlike traditional solar panels gallium arsenide thin film solar cells have the advantages of flexibility flexibility light weight adjustable color and shape plasticity.
These solar panels are then delivered to satellite prime contractors for integration onto spacecraft.
This means that it can produce nearly twice as much power in a given surface area.