Low Cost and Lightweight Amorphous Silicon Alloy Solar Array for Space Application

The constellation of satellites to be launched in the next few years to provide rapid global access to information needs low-cost and lightweight solar arrays. Multijunction thin-film amorphous silicon (a-Si) alloy solar cells deposited on lightweight and flexible substrates are ideal to meet this challenge. a-Si alloy is radiation hard, and has superior high temperature performance. We present results on fabrication of a-Si alloy solar cells on 0.5-mil-thick stainless steel using a low-cost production technology to achieve high efficiency under AM0 condition and their space qualification.