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IAC-22-C3.3.8 Six years of spaceflight results from the AlSat-1N Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experiment

Craig Underwood Orcid Logo, Dan Lamb Orcid Logo, Stuart Irvine Orcid Logo, Simran Mardhani, Abdelmadjid Lassakeur Orcid Logo

Acta Astronautica, Volume: 213, Pages: 20 - 28

Swansea University Author: Dan Lamb Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.08.034

Abstract

The increasing power demands of spacecraft payloads and the realistic prospect of space based solar power (SBSP) stations as a means of providing zero carbon electricity in the 2030s, means that there is an emerging requirement for large area, yet lightweight, solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays that wil...

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Published in: Acta Astronautica
ISSN: 0094-5765
Published: Elsevier BV 2023
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa64164
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To be practical, such arrays will need to use solar cells which have a much higher specific power (i.e., power per unit mass) and a much lower cost per watt than current space-rated solar PV technologies. To this end, the Centre for Solar Energy Research (CSER) at Swansea University have been working on a new solar cell technology, based on thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe), deposited directly onto ultra-thin space qualified cover glass material. This offers a potentially high specific power and when adopting the conventional CdTe manufacturing process, a low-cost technology. The ultra-thin glass can produce a solar cell which is sufficiently flexible to allow “roll-out” deployment strategies. Four prototype cells were flown as part of the Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experimental payload, developed by CSER and the Surrey Space Centre (SSC), on the joint Algerian Space Agency (ASAL) – UK Space Agency AlSAT-1N Technology Demonstration CubeSat, launched into a 661 km × 700 km, 98.20° Sun Synchronous orbit, on September 26, 2016. The experiment has provided the first in-orbit current/voltage (I/V) measurements of this novel technology, and more than five years of flight results have now yielded new insights into its longer-term performance and inherent radiation hardness, which makes them particularly attractive for maintaining high end-of-life (EOL) performance for long duration space missions. The results help to strengthen the argument for further development of this technology for space application. The data, collected over ∼30,000 orbits, show no signs of cell delamination (a potential risk for such technologies), no deterioration in short circuit current or in series resistance. However, all four cell's fill factors were observed to decrease over the duration of the mission, caused primarily by a decrease in their shunt resistance. This has been attributed to the diffusion of gold atoms from the back electrical contacts. We conclude therefore that further development of this technology should utilize more stable back contacting methodologies more commonly employed for terrestrial CdTe modules. 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spelling v2 64164 2023-08-30 IAC-22-C3.3.8 Six years of spaceflight results from the AlSat-1N Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experiment decd92a653848a357f0c6f8e38e0aea0 0000-0002-4762-4641 Dan Lamb Dan Lamb true false 2023-08-30 MTLS The increasing power demands of spacecraft payloads and the realistic prospect of space based solar power (SBSP) stations as a means of providing zero carbon electricity in the 2030s, means that there is an emerging requirement for large area, yet lightweight, solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays that will provide far greater power (kWpeak) than is currently available. To be practical, such arrays will need to use solar cells which have a much higher specific power (i.e., power per unit mass) and a much lower cost per watt than current space-rated solar PV technologies. To this end, the Centre for Solar Energy Research (CSER) at Swansea University have been working on a new solar cell technology, based on thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe), deposited directly onto ultra-thin space qualified cover glass material. This offers a potentially high specific power and when adopting the conventional CdTe manufacturing process, a low-cost technology. The ultra-thin glass can produce a solar cell which is sufficiently flexible to allow “roll-out” deployment strategies. Four prototype cells were flown as part of the Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experimental payload, developed by CSER and the Surrey Space Centre (SSC), on the joint Algerian Space Agency (ASAL) – UK Space Agency AlSAT-1N Technology Demonstration CubeSat, launched into a 661 km × 700 km, 98.20° Sun Synchronous orbit, on September 26, 2016. The experiment has provided the first in-orbit current/voltage (I/V) measurements of this novel technology, and more than five years of flight results have now yielded new insights into its longer-term performance and inherent radiation hardness, which makes them particularly attractive for maintaining high end-of-life (EOL) performance for long duration space missions. The results help to strengthen the argument for further development of this technology for space application. The data, collected over ∼30,000 orbits, show no signs of cell delamination (a potential risk for such technologies), no deterioration in short circuit current or in series resistance. However, all four cell's fill factors were observed to decrease over the duration of the mission, caused primarily by a decrease in their shunt resistance. This has been attributed to the diffusion of gold atoms from the back electrical contacts. We conclude therefore that further development of this technology should utilize more stable back contacting methodologies more commonly employed for terrestrial CdTe modules. However, this flight has proven the basic soundness of the technology for use in space. Journal Article Acta Astronautica 213 20 28 Elsevier BV 0094-5765 Thin-film solar cells, CubeSat, Technology demonstration 1 12 2023 2023-12-01 10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.08.034 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.08.034 COLLEGE NANME Materials Science and Engineering COLLEGE CODE MTLS Swansea University EPSRC EP/K019597/1 2023-09-26T16:45:00.1073128 2023-08-30T09:43:06.1641507 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Materials Science and Engineering Craig Underwood 0000-0002-7001-5510 1 Dan Lamb 0000-0002-4762-4641 2 Stuart Irvine 0000-0002-1652-4496 3 Simran Mardhani 4 Abdelmadjid Lassakeur 0000-0002-4538-6985 5 64164__28481__4eafca2faa9d4a86a038a9394f3be649.pdf 64164VoR.pdf 2023-09-08T09:47:15.0462972 Output 5692228 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of IAA. Distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0). true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title IAC-22-C3.3.8 Six years of spaceflight results from the AlSat-1N Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experiment
spellingShingle IAC-22-C3.3.8 Six years of spaceflight results from the AlSat-1N Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experiment
Dan Lamb
title_short IAC-22-C3.3.8 Six years of spaceflight results from the AlSat-1N Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experiment
title_full IAC-22-C3.3.8 Six years of spaceflight results from the AlSat-1N Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experiment
title_fullStr IAC-22-C3.3.8 Six years of spaceflight results from the AlSat-1N Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experiment
title_full_unstemmed IAC-22-C3.3.8 Six years of spaceflight results from the AlSat-1N Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experiment
title_sort IAC-22-C3.3.8 Six years of spaceflight results from the AlSat-1N Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experiment
author_id_str_mv decd92a653848a357f0c6f8e38e0aea0
author_id_fullname_str_mv decd92a653848a357f0c6f8e38e0aea0_***_Dan Lamb
author Dan Lamb
author2 Craig Underwood
Dan Lamb
Stuart Irvine
Simran Mardhani
Abdelmadjid Lassakeur
format Journal article
container_title Acta Astronautica
container_volume 213
container_start_page 20
publishDate 2023
institution Swansea University
issn 0094-5765
doi_str_mv 10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.08.034
publisher Elsevier BV
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Materials Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Materials Science and Engineering
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.08.034
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description The increasing power demands of spacecraft payloads and the realistic prospect of space based solar power (SBSP) stations as a means of providing zero carbon electricity in the 2030s, means that there is an emerging requirement for large area, yet lightweight, solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays that will provide far greater power (kWpeak) than is currently available. To be practical, such arrays will need to use solar cells which have a much higher specific power (i.e., power per unit mass) and a much lower cost per watt than current space-rated solar PV technologies. To this end, the Centre for Solar Energy Research (CSER) at Swansea University have been working on a new solar cell technology, based on thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe), deposited directly onto ultra-thin space qualified cover glass material. This offers a potentially high specific power and when adopting the conventional CdTe manufacturing process, a low-cost technology. The ultra-thin glass can produce a solar cell which is sufficiently flexible to allow “roll-out” deployment strategies. Four prototype cells were flown as part of the Thin-Film Solar Cell (TFSC) experimental payload, developed by CSER and the Surrey Space Centre (SSC), on the joint Algerian Space Agency (ASAL) – UK Space Agency AlSAT-1N Technology Demonstration CubeSat, launched into a 661 km × 700 km, 98.20° Sun Synchronous orbit, on September 26, 2016. The experiment has provided the first in-orbit current/voltage (I/V) measurements of this novel technology, and more than five years of flight results have now yielded new insights into its longer-term performance and inherent radiation hardness, which makes them particularly attractive for maintaining high end-of-life (EOL) performance for long duration space missions. The results help to strengthen the argument for further development of this technology for space application. The data, collected over ∼30,000 orbits, show no signs of cell delamination (a potential risk for such technologies), no deterioration in short circuit current or in series resistance. However, all four cell's fill factors were observed to decrease over the duration of the mission, caused primarily by a decrease in their shunt resistance. This has been attributed to the diffusion of gold atoms from the back electrical contacts. We conclude therefore that further development of this technology should utilize more stable back contacting methodologies more commonly employed for terrestrial CdTe modules. However, this flight has proven the basic soundness of the technology for use in space.
published_date 2023-12-01T16:45:01Z
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score 11.035634

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