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Flexible and High-Efficient Tandem Solar Cells endowed with Photonic Management for Space Application

Flexibilidade e Alta Eficiência com Células Solares Tandem dotadas com Gestão Fotónica para Aplicação Espacial

Reference
2022.01610.PTDC
Project Start Date
2023-03-01
Project End Date
2026-08-31
Principal Investigator
Coinvestigator
Scientific Area
Engineering and technology
Funding Program
Concurso de Projetos de I&D em Todos os Domínios Científicos - 2022 - ICDT

Abstract

Space is a strategic pillar of the socio-economic growth in Europe . Today, Space means safe communications, Earth surveillance to reach the EU’s environmental objectives and monitor the effects of climate change on natural resources and its mitigation, managing transportation (pollution control). But Space also means competition, to go beyond the current scientific frontiers. Most spacecrafts rely on solar electricity as the main power source, being efficiency and reliability the main figures-of-merit for the deployed photovoltaic (PV) technologies. Therefore, multiple-junction solar cells are preferential in the Space sector, which traditionally have been mainly based on stacked III–V materials of increasing bandgap supported on Germanium (Ge) wafer substrates. Although allowing the highest PV efficiencies thus far (typically ~30% module efficiencies based in triple-junction cells as GaInP/GaAs/Ge),[1] such approach relies on highly expensive materials and hardly scalable fabrication . However, with the increasing interest of private companies in space, cost-effectiveness is becoming another main requirement and more affordable PV solutions (yet guaranteeing high efficiency, robustness and minimum weight ) are now strongly demanded. Besides, there is a growing diversification of applications for the next exploration steps, as the wider use of small satellites or the settling of bases on Mars and Moon, which raise the need of device adaptability where mechanical flexibility (associated with lightweight) can play key roles to facilitate deployment and reduce stowing volume.[2] SpaceFlex will launch a new trend in PV technology, endowed with high efficiency plus flexibility and fabricated with inexpensive materials, and will demonstrate it for space-qualified powering with unprecendented power/weight and power/cost ratio ( see goals in Table1 ). To achieve this, we will drive disruptive advances in thin multi-junction solar cells enhanced with light management , capitalizing on the pioneering R&D of CENIMAT.[3,4] The aim is to attain record efficiency (30% targeted) with bendable devices, and demonstrate stable operation under space conditions of radiation, pressure and temperature gradients, following strict test standards from ESA.[5] Here, the participation of LusoSpace, an SME leader in optoelectronics for Space , is essential to maximize the project exploitation potential. SpaceFlex addresses these challenges from experimental and device fabrication grounds guided by computational modelling and advanced characterization ( see project structure in Fig.1 ). The technologies will be attractive for industrial deployment , since only abundant materials and affordable scalable processes are applied. Namely, we explore a novel all-thin-film double-junction (tandem) PV architecture (Fig.2), incorporating a thin (5-10 um thick) crystalline silicon (c-Si) bottom subcell coupled with a wide-bandgap perovskite top subcell (~1 um thick). The bottom cell is epitaxially grown via low-temperature Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PECVD), then it is detached from the parent wafer and transferred to a foreign (glass or flexible metal foil) substrate (Fig.3&4), followed by the patterning of the perovskite top cell and the photonic structures on the front contact providing light-trapping across the tandem. This way, apart from granting flexibility (targeting 5 cm bending radii), the thin design allows reducing by one order of magnitude the weight of typical wafer-based PV cells used in Space systems, thus also enabling advantageous stowing possibilities while maintaining similar power density. In particular, the application of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) in Space is a key novelty of this project, with extreme interest as recently envisaged by NASA.[6] For that, we capitalize on the high compositional adaptability of PSC technology,[7] to allow optimum properties as top cells and for long-term performance in space conditions. The most stable PSC materials will be developed with absorber bandgap (1.7-1.8 eV) optimized for the tandem, having demonstrated market-compatible robustness.[8] Another breakthrough will be the integration of an advanced photonic scheme to enhanced the optical density of the thin tandem cell, which enables not only improved efficiency (via broadband absorption gain) with thinner devices (granting higher bendability), but also higher stability in Space conditions (via UV light protection) as first shown by the PI team .[9,10] To accomplish this, CENIMAT and LusoSpace join efforts to develop a new class of space-compatible PV technology with higher efficiency, lighter weight and flexile devices, capitalizing on the 30 year expertise of CENIMAT in solar cells and photonics (particularly for perovskite-on-Si tandems successfully developed in Altaluz and FlexSolar FCT projects coordinated by the PI team) and LusoSpace with 20 years of experience in optoelectronics engineering and qualification for Space systems.

Institutions

Main Institutions

  • Universidade Nova de Lisboa Associação para a Inovação e Desenvolvimento da FCT (NOVA.ID.FCT)

Other Institutions

  • LUSOSPACE, PROJECTOS ENGENHARIA LDA (LPE)

Funding 249.999,84 €

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Portugal

249.999,84 €