Development and testing of III-V multijunction-based terrestrial concentrator modules

This paper presents progress in the design, construction, and testing of high concentration receivers, submodules, and complete modules based on Emcore's III-V/Ge based multi-junction concentrator cell. Economic arguments are used to first determine an appropriate range of geometric concentration ratio (800-1000 suns) and solar cell area (0.1 to 1 cm/sup 2/). The concentrator system is then designed around these and other constraints. Receivers, SOEs and a prototype module have been constructed as well as an automated on-sun test facility. Testing and evaluation of the integrated components await the delivery of the primary Fresnel optics.