Solar cell degradation under ionizing radiation ambient: Preemptive testing and evaluation via electrical overstressing

The efforts addressed in this thesis refer to assaying the degradations in modern solar cells used in space-borne and/or nuclear environment applications. This study is motivated to address the following: (1.) Modeling degradations in Si pn-junction solar cells (devices-under-test or DUTs) under different ionizing radiation dosages (2.) Preemptive and predictive testing to determine the aforesaid degradations that decide eventual reliability of the DUTs; and (3.) Using electrical overstressing (EOS) to emulate the fluence of ionizing radiation dosage on the DUT.;Relevant analytical methods, computational efforts and experimental studies are described. Forward/reverse characteristics as well as ac impedance performance of a set of DUTs under pre- and post-electrical overstressings are evaluated. Change in observed DUT characteristics are correlated to equivalent ionizing-radiation dosages. The results are compiled and cause-effect considerations are discussed. Conclusions are enumerated and inferences are made with direction for future studies.