STATISTICAL COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ELECTRICAL PARAMETERS OF CIC ASSEMBLIES FOR AQUARIUS/SAC-D SATELLITE MISSION

E. GODFRIN; J. PLA; J.C. DURÁN

Valencia

Conferencia; 25th. European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference; 2010

The Solar Energy Group (GES) of the Argentine National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) performs research and development activities related with photovoltaic solar energy conversion for space and terrestrial applications. From 2007, the GES is working in the development of the solar array for Aquarius/SAC-D mission through a contract signed between CNEA and CONAE. This mission is a joint venture between NASA, from the the US, and the Argentine National Commission for Space Activities (CONAE), The fabrication of Aquarius/SAC-D solar array began in 2008, and nowadays is finished. Almost 3000 CIC (Covered Interconnected Cell) based on triple junction InGaP-GaAs-Ge solar cells were assembled and electrically characterised under normalised conditions. In this report, a statistical analysis of the electrical parameters of CIC assemblies compared to those of the bare cells provided by the cell supplier is presented. Fill Factor was specially considered since it seems to be a good parameter to reveal minor degradation of the electrical characteristics  differences in cell integration. This analysis showed to be an interesting tool for monitoring the integration process and also for checking the reliability of the measurement procedure.