18.3% efficient silicon solar cells for space applications

In this paper, the authors report on the development of high-efficiency silicon solar cells designed specifically for space applications. The cells are the 100 /spl mu/m thin N/sup +/-P-P/sup +/ and are 2/spl times/4 cm in size. The front side surface is textured with inverted pyramids and received a double layer anti-reflection coating (ARC). They also have a back surface field (BSF) and a back surface reflector (BSR). Both front and back diffusions are optimized for radiation hardness. The best beginning of life (BOL) efficiencies of these thin (100 /spl mu/m) 2 cm/spl times/4 cm cells have been measured At JPL to be 18.3%. The best end of life (EOL) efficiencies after 1 MeV 1E15 electrons is 12.1%.