Investigation of radiation-induced degradations in four-junction solar cell by experiment and simulation

Abstract Displacement damage induced degradations in four-junction solar cells are investigated by electron irradiation and TCAD simulation. It shows that In0.3Ga0.7As cell is the key sub cell to affect the radiation tolerance of four-junction solar cell. Although irradiation will introduce relatively uniform displacement damage in each sub cell of four-junction solar cell, the In0.3Ga0.7As cell show the most significant degradation under the same radiation damage conditions. The radiation harness of the four-junction solar cell can be promoted by increase the short circuit current of In0.3Ga0.7As cell before irradiation, which is verified by the TCAD simulations. The relationship between electrical characteristics degradations and the displacement damage dose is established for four-junction solar cells. Then, the equivalent displacement damage dose method has been used to predict the on-orbit degradation of four-junction solar cells. The degradations of the four-junction solar cells on typical geosynchronous earth orbit are calculated by combining Monte Carlo simulations and ground irradiation test data.