Browsing by Author "Behailu, Netsanet"

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    Study and Review on the Design and Performance Aspects of III-V Semiconductor Solar Cells (Case Study: Comparison on GaAs, Ge, and Si substrate)
    (Addis Ababa University, 2016-11) Behailu, Netsanet; Abdo, Mohammed (Prof.)
    This thesis focuses on studying and reviewing the design and performance aspects of III-V Solar cells; and make a comparison among the solar cells on GaAs, Ge, and Si substrate mainly based on efficiency and cost. The performances of 1-junction GaAs and 2-junction InGaP/GaAs solar cells on GaAs substrate is reviewed and the latest efficiencies are found to be 28.8% and 34.1% respectively. The performance of 3-Junction solar cell on Ge substrate is also reviewed and the latest efficiency is 44.4%. Finally, the performance of 1-Junction, 2-Junction and 3-Junction III-V solar cells on Si substrate is reviewed and the recent efficiencies are 26%, 29.2% and 33.5% respectively. Regarding the cost, one of the most significant cost contributors for III-V solar cells is the cost of the starting substrate. A recent study has revealed that transitioning of a 4” Ge or GaAs substrate to 8” Si substrate would correlate to about 60% reduction in cost for multijunction solar cells. In general, the review shows that the efficiencies of III-V solar cells on Si substrate are continually increasing and recently, the efficiencies of 1-Junction and 2-Junction III-V solar cells on Si substrate become comparable to the one on GaAs substrate. The study indicates that the successful integration of III-V solar cells on Si substrate offers a great promise for lowering the cost of solar energy by combining the high efficiency merits of the III-V materials with the low-cost and abundance of the Si substrate.