Coverglass Radiation-Induced Multijunction Solar Cell Current-Limiting Effects

The implications of ionizing radiation-induced coverglass darkening on the current-limiting characteristics of presently flown multijunction (MJ) solar cells are discussed. An interesting relationship between displacement damage and ionizing radiation exists where ionizing damage to the coverglass is shown to offset displacement damage effects in the MJ stack and thereby act to maintain the current-limiting characteristics to the top cell which can result in an overprediction of mission degradation predictions.