LARGE-AREA, EPITAXIAL LIFT-OFF, INVERTED METAMORPHIC SOLAR CELLS

R. Tatavarti, A. Wibowo, V. Elarde, F. Tuminello, R. Pastor, T. Giannopoulos, M. Osowski, R. Chan, C.

Youtsey, G. Hillier, and N. Pan,
MicroLink Devices Inc., Niles, Illinois, USA
ABSTRACT
2

Emitter electrodes were designed to be suitable for onesun AM0 illumination.

Large area (20 cm ) epitaxial lifted-off (ELO) triple junction

(TJ) solar cells based on inverted metamorphic (IMM)
InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs were fabricated. These TJ IMM ELO
solar cells exhibited efficiency >29% at one sun AM0
illumination, which is the highest reported efficiency for
IMM ELO thin cells to date. The cells had fill factor >85%,
open circuit voltage (Voc) = 2.93 V, and short circuit current
2
density (Jsc) = 16.3 mA/cm . Studies performed on IMM
ELO solar cells after >700 thermal cycles between -175 C
and 80 C revealed no degradation in cell performance.
Batches of up to 48 substrates were subjected to reclaim
after the ELO process; no degradation in performance was
noted between cells grown on prime and reclaimed
substrates.
INTRODUCTION
The development of low-cost, high-efficiency, lightweight,
flexible solar cells with 40% efficiency under one-sun, AM0
illumination has the potential to enable novel space
1
applications . One of the limitations on specific power for
space applications is the mass of the solar cell substrate.
2,3
ELO technology allows a large reduction in the specific
power by completely eliminating the substrate weight.
ELO technology also enables the substrate to be reused
many times, thereby providing a pathway for a substantial
reduction in the cost of multi-junction solar cells. In this
paper we will report our recent progress on increasing the
performance and reducing the cost of high-efficiency
4
InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs inverted metamorphic (IMM) triplejunction (TJ) ELO solar cells on full 100 mm substrates for
space applications.
EXPERIMENTAL
InGaP/GaAs/InGaAs TJ IMM solar cells were grown
epitaxially by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition
(MOCVD) at 100 mbar using arsine, phosphine,
trimethylindium, and trimethylgallium as precursors. A
V/III ratio >50 was used during growth. The cells were
grown on GaAs substrates. Figure 1 shows the IMM solar
cell structure. The first layer grown is an AlGaAs release
layer required for the ELO process; the TJ cell is grown on
top of the release layer. The solar cell layers are grown in
reverse order to accommodate the inversion of the cell
that takes place during ELO. After epitaxial growth, a
metal handle layer is deposited on top of the device
structure to facilitate ELO and subsequent layer transfer.
The 100 mm ELO substrate was processed to form solar
2
2
cells with active areas in the range 1.0 cm to 22.0 cm .

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Figure 1: IMM triple-junction solar cell.

After the ELO process, the substrates were shipped to one
of two external vendors for re-polish. Reliability studies
were performed on CICed cells by subjecting them to
thermal cycling between 175 C and 80 C in accordance
with GEO orbit testing conditions.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Current-Voltage Measurements
I-V measurements of TJ ELO solar cells were made at
NASA Glenn Research Center using a one-sun AM0
spectrum. Figure 2 shows the measured I-V curve for a
2
20.6 cm IMM solar cells. The AR coated cell exhibited
29.4% efficiency, which is the highest AM0 efficiency
reported to date for ELO TJ thin cells. The ELO TJ cells
also exhibited fill factor = 85.3%, Voc = 2.93 V, and short
2
circuit current density Jsc = 16.3 mA/cm . A similar
2
efficiency was measured for 1.0 cm cells. The high fill

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factor and efficiency are caused by the reduced defect

density and increased current in the InGaAs subcell, which
is a result of optimization of epitaxial growth conditions
and doping profiles.

across the ELO substrate, we fabricated 1 cm cells on

100 mm substrates. In Figure 4 we plotted the measured
2
efficiency of 1 cm cells (AR coated) from various positions
on the across the 100 mm substrate. Efficiency was
measured at MicroLink under AM0 illumination using a
three-zone TS-Space solar simulator. Excellent uniformity
across the substrate is obtained as shown by the <5%
variation. This indicates that large-area cells fabricated on
such a substrate will be highly uniform and reproducible.

Figure 2: Illuminated AM0 IV curves for IMM ELO solar

cells measured at NASA Glenn.
Quantum Efficiency Measurements
Measured external quantum efficiency spectra of IMM
ELO cells (AR coated) under AM0 illumination is plotted in
Figure 3. The calculated integrated current under AM0
spectrum is 16.5 mA for the top InGa(Al)P subcell, 17 mA
for the middle GaAs subcell and 18.5 mA for the bottom
InGaAs subcell. This indicates that the overall current in
the tandem cell is top-cell limited.

Figure 4: Efficiency under AM0 illumination for 1 cm cells

across a 100 mm substrate.
Using ELO technology, we have successfully reclaimed
3
GaAs substrate. Previously we have reported growth and
performance of dual-junction cells on a substrate that was
reclaimed twice. The performance of the cell as gauged
by quantum efficiency data did not show any degradation.
GaAs Substrate Reclaim

Figure 3: External quantum efficiency spectra of IMM ELO

cell.
ELO Substrate Uniformity
Over the past two years, MicroLink has developed
significant expertise in performing the ELO process on
100 mm substrates and is currently fabricating and
processing ELO substrates at pilot production levels. A
large amount of our development work has concentrated
2
on improving the yield of large-area (>20 cm ) cells. The
ELO process has shown good potential for achieving high
yields, but a key determinant of large-area yield is
substrate uniformity. In order to evaluate the uniformity

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In order to determine the effectiveness of substrate

reclaim, the performance of ELO TJ solar cells grown on
prime substrates was compared with the performance of
cells grown on reclaimed substrates. A batch of 48
substrates was selected for reclaim after they had gone
through the ELO process. The substrates were sent to
two outside vendors for repolish. Prime substrates, which
had not experienced the ELO process, were also repolished as a control. TJ ELO solar cell structures were
then grown on the re-polished substrates, the substrates
2
went through ELO process, and 1.0 cm TJ IMM ELO
solar cells were fabricated and tested. The substrates
were then reclaimed again. Summary distributions of the
2
measured efficiency (under AM1.5,1sun) for 1.0 cm cells
grown on prime substrates and on substrates from reclaim
cycle 1 and reclaim cycle 2 are plotted in Figure 5. A total
of 360 cells were tested during this exercise. Cycle 1 and
Cycle 2 results include reclaim substrates from two
vendors.

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Figure 5: Distribution of measured efficiency (AM1.5,

uncoated) for cells from prime and reclaimed substrates.
It is remarkable to note how closely the efficiency
distributions for the reclaimed substrates match the
distribution for prime substrates. This indicates that the
ELO process is robust against quality variations resulting
from substrate reclaim.
Reliability of ELO Solar Cells
We have studied the reliability of TJ ELO cells using
thermal cycling over the range -175 C to 80 C. Four
critical-to-quality parameters, efficiency, fill factor, Voc, and
Jsc were used to measure the reliability of ELO IMM cells.
Freestanding, tabbed, and CICed cells were studied. An
example of the measured efficiency and Jsc variation for
CICed ELO cells subjected to >750 thermal cycles over
the range -175 C to 80 C is shown in Figure 6. In
general it was found that no significant performance
degradation was observed for all types of ELO cells
tested. The thermal cycling tests are ongoing and the
number of thermal cycles applied is >1,000.

Figure 6: Efficiency and short circuit current variation for

0
ELO TJ cells after >750 thermal cycles between -175 C
0
to 80 C.
CONCLUSIONS
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Large-area (>20 cm ) TJ IMM ELO solar cells efficiency

>29% under one-sun, AM0 illumination were fabricated.
The cell efficiency was verified at NASA Glenn Research
Center. The performance of large- and small-area cells
has been found to be similar. Substrate reclaim on large
batches of substrates was performed using two external
vendors. No performance degradation was observed for
cells grown on reclaimed substrates. TJ ELO cells were
subjected to >750 thermal cycles between -175 C and
80 C without any significant performance degradation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by AFRL, under contracts
FA9453-08-C-0110, FA9453-09-C-0372 (ARRA), and
FA9453-09-C-0365. We thank our Program Manager,
Alex Howard of AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate, for his
continued support and encouragement. This work is also
partially supported by DARPA funding under contracts
W31P4Q-09-C-0079 and HR0011-07-9-0005.

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We thank D. Scheimann, for his timely help in AM0

measurements, at NASA Glenn Research Center, 21000
Brookpark Road, Cleveland, OH 44135.
The views, opinions, and/or findings contained in this
paper are those of the author(s) and should not be
interpreted as representing the official views or policies,
either expressed or implied, of the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency or the Department of Defense.
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