Impact of Space Radiation Environment on Concentrator Photovoltaic Systems

Concentrator photovoltaic systems can provide supplementary shielding against high energy particles. In this paper we compare the radiation environment that the same solar cell would experience in a flat-plate module versus in a parabolic mirror concentrator system. We have observed that the shielding provided by the concentrator system is remarkable. In order to obtain an accurate prediction of the overall shield needed in our concentrator system triple-junction space solar cells have been irradiated on the edge with 350-keV protons at a fluence of 10
¹²
p
⁺
cm
^-2
. A mild degradation of the open circuit voltage was measured (~70 mV).