Emcore to Design Solar Panels for Spacecraft

Compound semiconductor vendor Emcore Corp. (Albuquerque, NM) has signed a $6 million contract with Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. (Boulder, CO) to design, manufacture, test and deliver solar panels for a new spacecraft.

Under the terms of the agreement, Emcor solar panels will be populated with its third generation ZTJ triple-junction solar cells with n-on-p polarity built on a 140µm uniform thickness Ge substrate.

Emcore’s ZTJ space solar cell features and characteristics:
. Lowest solar cell mass of 84mg/cm²
. Third generation triple-junction (ZTJ) InGaP/InGaAs/Ge Solar Cells with n-on-p polarity on 140µm Uniform Thickness Substrate

. Space-qualified with proven flight heritage
. Radiation resistance with P/Po = 0.90 @ 1-MeV, 5E14 e/cm² fluence
. Designed to accept corner-mounted silicon bypass diode for individual cell reverse bias protection
. Good mechanical strength for reduced attrition during assembly and laydown
. Standard and custom sizes available