Rollable nano-etched diffractive low-concentration PV sheets for small satelites

This paper discuses a novel, rollable, mass fabricable, low-concentration photovoltaic sheets for Cubesats providing them with efficient photoelectric conversion of sunlight and secondary diffuse light. The wrap consists of three thin (of order a millimeter or less), cheap plastic-sheet layers, which can be rolled together in a spiral wrapping configuration when stowed. Preliminary simulation based on the above modeling approaches show that the designs achieve comparable photovoltaic power (area for area) and (b) result in a at angular response curve which remains at from normal incidence of over 35 degrees to the normal. The simulation were performed using a ray tracing simulator built in Matlab. In addition, we have constructed a demonstrator using quartz wafers based on the optimized design to show the technology. Details of its fabrication are also provided.