Gallium arsenide gaas is the highest performance solar material currently available boasting conversion efficiencies in excess of 40 nearly double those of crystalline silicon.
Gaas solar panel.
Azur space has already delivered over 1 5 million triple junction gaas solar cells to a wide range of customers.
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.
All 3j technologies are fully aiaa s111 and s112 qualified.
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.
These solar panels are then delivered to satellite prime contractors for integration onto spacecraft.
This is a superior property of gallium arsenide.
In a recent article in the magazine electronic news gallium arsenide was tested on a germanium substrate.
Spectrolab offers a range of gainp gaas ge lattice matched 3j solar cells with efficiencies reaching 32.
Unlike traditional solar panels gallium arsenide thin film solar cells have the advantages of flexibility flexibility light weight adjustable color and shape plasticity.
When the limitations of silicon are highlighted gaas is a good direction.
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.
There is some variation from brand to brand and if you re installing a large scale solar panel system such as for a warehouse or a municipal building your panels will be closer to 6 feet long.
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.
This means that it can produce nearly twice as much power in a given surface area.
22 the first known operational use of gaas solar cells in space was for the venera 3 mission launched in 1965.
Spectrolab offers a range of gainp gaas ge lattice matched 3j solar cells with efficiencies reaching 32.
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.
Gallium arsenide solar cells can have roughly 25 efficiency rating with only one junction.