Ensuring 25-year reliability of a CPV system requires knowledge of potential failure modes and material deficiencies. While Emcore’s CPV system conforms to all IEC 62108 tests, additional tests to eliminate potential long term reliability concerns have been performed. Performance is evaluated through all levels of integration, from cell to module. Tests at the cell level include IEC 62108 tests where feasible, as well as several other tests to establish the ability of the cell to survive additional integration and perform well throughout the lifetime of the CPV module. At a receiver assembly and module level, potential reliability concerns are addressed through targeted testing, which consists of accelerated stress tests which are used to quickly evaluate material performance and designed stress tests which allow the determination of activation energies. With this information, expected lifetime can be assessed and reliability concerns mitigated. Test methodologies and results from cell, receiver assembly and full module are presented demonstrating that targeted stress testing at each level of integration is a viable approach to assessing potential CPV failure modes.

Date Published: 10 October 2012
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 8468, High and Low Concentrator Systems for Solar Electric Applications VII, 846805 (10 October 2012); doi: 10.1117/12.928880

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8468:
High and Low Concentrator Systems for Solar Electric Applications VII
Kaitlyn VanSant; Adam P. Plesniak, Editor(s)