European Roadmap of Multijunction Solar Cells and Qualification Status

A program for the development and qualification of advanced triple-junction space solar cells in Europe was initiated and supported by the European Space Agency ESA (contracts No. 18767/04/NL/FM "development of next generation GaAs-based multijunction solar cells" and No. 18118/04/NL/US "space qualification of European triple-junction solar cell RWE-3G") and the national German Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. DLR (contract No. 50JR0442 "triple, quadruple and sextuple solar cells for space applications"). RWE Space Solar Power (D) is leading a research and development consortium including Fraunhofer-SE (D), Umicore (B), Galileo Avionica (I) and Astrium (D). The paper presents results of the work of these programs, in which triple junction solar cells with AM0-efficiencies of up to 30% are developed