Tecstar Reclaims Technology Lead in High Efficiency Solar Cells for Space

TECH SPACE

High powered broadband systems such as the much mooted Teledesic system will need more power than ever to provide the service levels needed to be a success.

City Of Industry - June 18, 2001
Tecstar Inc. announced today that with the introduction of their Third Generation-Multijunction solar cell called TEC 3i, that they have recaptured the leadership position they had previously held for many years.

"TEC 3i offers solar array and satellite integrators a key enabling technology yielding satellite end-of-life (EOL) performance and significant reductions in manufacturing costs previously unattainable in the market," indicated Tom Cadwell, Tecstar President & CEO.

"Key to this success is our (26.5% and 86% end of power remaining, p/po at 1e15 MeV) new record for radiation performance for solar cells of this very large size and our Patented Monolithically grown By-pass Diode, unique to Tecstar and a significant cost saver for our customers," added Mr. Cadwell.

The monolithic bypass diode enables superior solar panel performance and has demonstrated operation to 100,000 extreme shadow cycles and the TEC 3i is the most rigorously tested solar cell yet offered to the satellite marketplace. Tecstar Inc. has also improved their product delivery model to better support their customers. "With the introduction of TEC 3i, we are offering our customers world leading performance combined with guaranteed cost reductions in $ per watt now and for all future buys.

These benefits are driven by improvements already completed and in the qualification for TEC 3i and our commitment to pass these performance and cost improvements on to our customer base," reported Patrick Park, Tecstar VP for Photovoltaic Marketing & Sales.

TEC 3i technology is also offered at any level of integration our customers prefer, from EPI to Cells to Cell Assemblies or complete solar panels ready for satellite array integration. Tecstar is unique in its ability to provide customers worldwide this flexibility. TEC 3i has started full-scale production. Tecstar Inc. had successfully introduced successive generations of solar cell technologies and powered the IRIDIUM constellation and a significant population of the world's direct broadcast satellites.

"In recent years, Tecstar has also introduced advanced product development and manufacturing methods, taken from the compound semiconductor world, to support a successful entry into the optoelectronics EPI market. These tools have paid dividends in our product costs for both optoelectronics and solar cells," added Frank Ho, Tecstar VP for Technology Development.

"Our record performance currently offered is just the beginning point for this technology, continuous improvements are expected as we further optimize our TEC 3i structure," said Mr. Ho.

TECH SPACE

Engineer Brings Cost Of Experiments Down To Earth

West Lafayette - June 8, 2001
A Purdue University engineer is saving NASA millions of dollars by devising a method to test a new type of solar-power system on Earth instead of in the ultra-expensive environment of space.

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