Direct Comparison of Ground and In-Flight Measurements of New Multi-Junction Solar Cell Technologies

Abstract

The pace of development for new photovoltaic structures such as the inverted meta-morphic (IMM) IIIV cells, exceeds the pace at which spectrally matched, calibrated, solar cells can be created due to the infrequent opportunities of balloon or space based calibration. As such, laboratories must rely on previous generation AM0 calibrated cells and make appropriate corrections. Equally challenging is measuring the same cells in space without a controlled laboratory environment. It is within this context, the 3rd Forward Technology Solar Cell Experiment (FTSCE III), measured three, four and five junction advanced technology solar cells in space. This report compares the beginning-of-life in-flight measurements with the laboratory measurements made before flight.