Thin film coated coverglass for improving gallium arsenide solar cell performance

The purpose of this study is to determine how well new coverglass coating filters improved the performance of gallium arsenide solar cells. The new filters examined are designed to reflect light which does not efficiently generate electricity, but rather produces heat in the solar cell. The thermal and optical effects are examined here.;The study focused on four areas: (1) A thermal model of solar panels was generated; (2) The thermal effects of the coating candidates and their influence on the cell voltage was examined; (3) The effects on cell current due to differences in coverglass transmittances was examined; (4) Finally the predicted change in cell performance was calculated.;This study found that improvements in output power on the order of 2.7 percent could be achieved with the candidates examined.